With the wide participation of the women’s movement in Turkey, SES Equality and Solidarity Association commemorated 21 women/movements that have inspired the struggle for gender equality and women’s rights in 2021.
SES Equality and Solidarity Association gave 21 women or women’s movements the “2021 SES Women of the Year” award for being a pioneer in the struggle for women’s rights and gender equality in the world. The 21 women and movements were chosen due to their exemplary feminist stance and resistance against systematic oppression.
The awards were given out at the ceremony held at the Pera Museum, İstanbul, on January 20.
The ceremony was attended by Nuray Karaoğlu, chair of the Association for Support of Women Candidates (KA.DER), representatives of the Women’s Platform for Equality (EŞİK), the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGİDER) President Emine Erdem, Önay Alpago, Özge Mumcu, Mehveş Evin, CHP’s Istanbul provincial chair Canan. Kaftancıoğlu and CHP Istanbul Deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Ünal Çeviköz, along with others from civil society, media and academia.
The event and its press communication was organized by Marjinal, and was hosted by journalist Özlem Gürses. The book, which includes the stories of the award-winning women, was edited by Eda Doğançay and Leman Meral Ünal. The book design was carried out by Tolga Yılmaz; Aslı Alpar created the cover illustration.
In the event, Ayşe Albayrak on behalf of the İkizdere resistance, journalist Çiğdem Toker, women’s rights activist Hülya Gülbahar on behalf of EŞİK, Nazlıcan Doğan on behalf of Boğaziçi resistance, activist and singer Liana Georgi and activist Hacer Foggo came to receive the awards, while Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar, the representative of Women’s Rights Center, who received an award on behalf of the women’s movement in Poland, handball player Merve Akpınar, Afghanistan’s former Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs Hosna Jalil, Diyarbakır’s only female mukhtar Dilek Demir and actress Ezgi Mola sent a video message of solidarity.
Speeches on those who received an award also accompanied the ceremony. Türkan Elçi spoke about Merve Akpınar, the teen handball player who announced to millions of people the sexist difficulties she experienced when she started her career. Zeynep Oral gave a speech on journalist Çiğdem Toker and sports announcer Nihan Cabbaroğlu talked about Busenaz Sürmeneli, Olympic and world champion boxer.
A limited number of participants were invited due to COVID 19.
“We are grateful for the courage and hope they have given to the women.”
In her statement about the award ceremony held for the first time this year, SES Equality and Solidarity Association Founding President Gülseren Onanç said: “We follow the traces of courage, solidarity and change in the Equality, Justice, Women Platform. We compile the stories of women who inspire with their resistance, egalitarian stance, support for women’s solidarity, and success in their careers. In a way, we collect the stars to plant hope in the world. In 2021, we collected these women’s stories and shared them with our followers through our newsletters and social media accounts. In the 21st year of the 21st century, we wanted to choose 21 women and express our gratitude to them in front of the public. We identified women from Turkey and the world who set an example with their pioneering, egalitarian and feminist stance in the struggle for women’s rights, inspired women with their success or contributed to solidarity by resisting systematic oppression. Then we submitted it to the approval of women in Turkey, and we created our list with the answers of 690 women who answered our survey. Each of the stories of the women we chose with the contribution of the feminist women’s movement is a story of hope. We are grateful to the SES Women of the Year for the encouragement and hope they have given us.”
Ayşe Albayrak, who received an award on behalf of the women who resisted against the stone quarry planned to be built in Rize-İkizdere, said, “The resistance still continues. They are continuing to destroy, we continuing to resist. Let’s see who will win? We will continue to resist until the last tree standing. The women of our region are very brave. We continue to resist, we welcome all women to İkizdere.” She took her award from Prof. Dr. Beyza Üstün, one of the leading names in the struggle for environmental rights.
While receiving her award from Zeynep Oral, Çiğdem Toker, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Turkey said, “I received the award on behalf of women who resist and do not bow to power in Turkey and all over the world.”
Hacer Foggo, founder of the Deep Poverty Network who has persistently struggles to end poverty emphasized the need to spread solidarity everywhere. While presenting the award to Foggo, Dr. Canan Kaftancıoğlu stated, “I feel stronger when I am together with women who not only demonstrate that they are strong, but also organize this strength. I greet you all by saying “we are many women against “strong men.”
Boğaziçi students who inspired the feminist movement while fighting for a free and autonomous university were given their award by Boğaziçi University faculty member Dr. Esra Mungan. Nazlıcan Doğan, who received the award on behalf of the Boğaziçi students, shared the collective message of the Boğaziçi students:
“In this period when antidemocratic practices are besieging our lives, our constitutional right was ignored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we were abducted from our campuses, detained, beaten in custody, with unjustified and unlawful violence and torture. We faced more than 1200 detentions, 15 pre-trial detentions and more than 30 house arrests in this one year, we were threatened but we did not give up. All of this happened because a man who was appointed by the government as the president of the university, did not get up from the seat he usurped. As a generation who has witnessed since childhood how ambition for seats ruined the country, we resist, because we do not accept that this ambition for seats to corrupt universities, and to be oppressed by the system that feeds labor exploitation and hatred. We have accepted the struggle as hope for a year, and we will never give up our rightful resistance until our demands are met.”
Artist and LGBTI+ activist Liana Georgi, who won the SES “Women of the Year” award for her courage in the LGBTI+ Pride Parade, received her award from Gülseren Onanç, the Founding President of the SES Association. Expressing that she is ready to do whatever she can for women’s solidarity, Georgi sang her own song “All for love” at the ceremony.
Nazan Moroğlu, one of the leading figures of the women’s movement, presented the SES Women of the Year award to Hülya Gülbahar on behalf of EŞİK. While receiving her award, Gülbahar said, “Wherever there is oppression, wherever there is injustice, there is resistance, there is struggle. Women have been at the forefront of this struggle throughout history. Agricultural uprisings, workers’ uprisings… They were always at the forefront. Gezi resistance was the most female resistance in history. From now on, all social events will be events where women take part in equal numbers. We don’t have much to lose in Turkey. Women give their lives. Therefore, we will continue with hope and courage. Currently, the Presidency and the Diyanet (Ministry of Religious Affairs) are sitting at the table and discussing when children should get married, have sexual intercourse, without women’s organizations and bar associations. We, over 300 women’s organizations and LGBTI+ organizations that came together at EŞİK, will not leave any of our rights to them.”
Although the Women’s Rights Center, which received the award on behalf of the Polish women’s movement, could not attend the ceremony, one of its representatives, Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar, stated in the video message she sent:
“I am sending you a message of support and solidarity for the struggle for gender equality, women and LGBTI+ human rights and social justice from Poland. Your resistance to authoritarianism and the laws of patriarchy gives us hope that the victory of human rights is not just a dream, but a real goal of our actions. This goal will be easier to achieve, knowing that we can trust and inspire each other. We are very happy to be able to send you a message of solidarity from Poland, where we stand against the unjust treatment of women every day. On the occasion of your beautiful ceremony, we would like to thank you for fighting for women’s rights. Because every progressive change, every resistance and courageous action helps activists around the world find the strength to wake up the next morning and change the world.”