‘Women’s struggle is everywhere’

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"We launched the campaign at Kuğulu Park in Ankara on June 8. Statements were held on the local level in all provinces of Turkey throughout the week. The first chapter was to take to the streets against the law on abuse. Statements were held in all provinces and purple chains were formed in protest. In these demonstrations, we gave a clear message: We will not abandon the streets in the face of abuse."

It is how Rojda Bedia Akkaya from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Women's Assembly summarizes the new campaign of the assembly. "In the face of abuse, executions, trustees... We are here, women's struggle is everywhere," reads the slogan of the campaign.

'We have a serious experience with struggle'

"HDP has some qualities that differentiate it from others, we find it very important for women's politics," she tells bianet and continues as follows:

"Because in an environment where male mentality and politics are so dominant, a monist mentality of black and white is imposed on colors and no one can put a halt to the politics of fear or put forward and alternative, we consider equal representation to be essential in our all mechanisms.

"That is why we have introduced the co-chairpersonship system, which is based on the freedom of women in developing and implementing policies. We have a women's Parliamentary group at the Parliament. We have a large central women's assembly and we have a women's group organized in several parts of Turkey. We have a claim that HDP is a women's party.

"Because the paradigm of the HDP is a democratic and ecological paradigm which prioritizes women's freedom. Its importance for societies and women is perhaps not yet understood, but it is a party that has achieved what was said to be impossible, developed a political proposition and the role of which is getting more and more marked as it gets stronger.

"The Women's Assembly of the HDP also has a serious experience with struggle. It offers a ground for struggle where the experience, perspective and accumulation of Kurdish women's struggle and the experience and perspective of feminist women as individuals are combined into a joint gain."

'Women's struggle needs to be everywhere'

Akkaya raises concerns that women's unemployment and poverty have been on the increase. She shares the following details from their campaign:

"Our campaign of 'Women's struggle is everywhere' means that in the face of all these, the struggle of women needs to be everywhere.

"The second stage was our plans about the Law on Criminal Enforcement. We have set up a purple roastrum in several provinces to cry out loud that we will not accept the law that multiplies inequalities and deaths of women. We read the stories of massacred women. We formed a chain with purple ribbons. We formed a purple convoy for our women politicians in Kandıra Prison. We encapsulated the vehicle in purple and headed for Kandıra with our slogan 'Women's struggle is everywhere.' We let our all beautiful wishes reach the sky with purple and white balloons.

"We set up a purple microphone and wanted women to say something about our campaign. We came together with women in neighborhoods, paying attention to social distance. We labeled the streets with stickers carrying the slogans of our campaign.

'We will be on the streets'

"The third chapter will be about the trustees. The publicity meeting of our 'Co-Chairpersonship for Equal Representation and Equal Participation' file, which our Women's Assembly labored to prepare, was held in Diyarbakır. By the way, we recommend everyone to read the work that we have prepared. Our file, our political file will be sent to all women MPs of political parties. Similarly, there will be marches against trustees. We will keep defending our system, saying 'Co-Chairpersonship is our Purple Line.'

"Under the fourth chapter, we will be on the streets for a week against all types of violence and massacres of women. We will end our campaign by holding final events in several places, primarily in Ağrı, Dersim, Mersin, İstanbul and Mardin. But we do not see this as an ending. We will turn the conclusions that we derive from the campaign into a new planning." (EMK/SD)