Women’s institutions in Kurdish cities ‘turned into men’s coffee houses’ under trustee regime

A women’s group has raised concerns about women’s institutions run by municipalities in the Kurdish-populated provinces of Diyarbakır and Batman. Until the 2024 local elections, these institutions had been under the management of government-appointed trustees, who replaced elected mayors from pro-Kurdish parties due to 'terrorism' investigations against them.

The institutions in question were dismantled by trustee administrations and turned into ‘coffee houses for men,’ according to the report prepared by the Feminist Women’s Group (Feminist Kadın Grubu) based on their observations in the two cities.

Feride Eralp, who presented the report during an event at Feminist Mekan in Beyoğlu, İstanbul, said, "We have never ceased to build bridges and explain how war feeds patriarchy, not since the bombs fell on Roboski, not during the militarization of civilian areas, nor when cities turned into battlefields.”

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The report details recent visits to the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality, where participants expressed a renewed sense of access after an eight-year absence due to the trustee regime. In this year’s local election, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party won back almost all of the municipalities taken over by the government, the number of which exceeded 60, including city and district municipalities.

"Municipalities had been turned into inaccessible little palaces behind iron barriers, taken from the people, from us, from women, from all of us," Eralp described. "Now, they have once again become places that belong to the people, accessible to all."

Eralp highlighted the conversion of women-centric community spaces into religious education centers and marriage bureaus, a move seen as an attempt to confine women to domestic spaces and limit their influence in urban life. "The common areas where women could distance themselves from home, draw strength from each other, and breathe, have been transformed into coffee houses for men," she explained.

The report also touched on the leasing of numerous properties to ministries for 20-30 years during the trustee regime, including the Selis Women's Center in Batman, which was rented out for a nominal fee.

"In Batman, the gym that was opened by the municipality for women was converted into a men-only facility after a trustee was appointed. These are deliberate steps taken to prevent women from leaving their homes, confining them to home and family, and ensuring they have no say in the city they live in,” she remarked.

The practice of taking over municipalities from pro-Kurdish parties in the region started in 2016, during the period of state of emergency following a failed coup attempt. After the 2019 local elections, the government once again took over all but a handful of the municipalities in Kurdish cities. 

Following the 2024 local elections, the government took over the Hakkari municipality but has so far refrained from implementing a wide scale trustee regime. By law, the interior minister has the authority to remove a local administrator who has a criminal investigation against them on specific offenses, including terrorism. Members of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and its predecessors have often been subjected to investigations and trials, accused of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group. (EMK/VK)