In her article Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, reflects on the March 8 rallies in Turkey and calls for solidarity to be sustained after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Gülseren Onanç
A part of us is always hurting. When we have a nice meal in our warm home, take a shower, and hug our loved ones, we feel both lucky and a little guilty. We are rebelling against this government because the earthquake victims cannot receive the support and compassion they need.
I would like to recommend the documentary, the House of Mourning, by Journalist Duygu Demirağ, who likens the earthquake area to a house that is in mourning and tells the stories of women. According to what we learned from the documentary, there are 250 thousand pregnant women in the region. 24 thousand of them will give birth in March. Hospitals in the field have not yet been built to replace the demolished ones. Duygu underlines that we should not leave the people who are mourning alone.
Solidarity must be sustained
Feminist Solidarity for Disaster volunteers point out that women are afraid of being left alone in the earthquake zone and draw attention to the importance of making solidarity sustainable by taking it beyond urgent needs.
They say that women in Hatay are afraid of being forgotten.
We are angry, we are mourning. But we are protesting!
This year, we welcomed March 8 with the feelings of mourning and revolt. The authorities tried to prevent the Feminist Night March this year as well. As in previous years, Beyoğlu District Governorate tried to prevent the march on the grounds that “social peace and tranquility could be disturbed”. The entrances to Taksim and Istiklal Street were closed with police and riot police barriers. I must admit, it has become more and more enjoyable for me to contest the police and attend with cortege every year. It makes more sense to demonstrate by defying the police state and masculine violence. The Night March was once again very colourful in Cihangir.
The press release for the Feminist Night March stated: “We women; We know very well the disregard for human life, the state’s inability to manage crises and fulfill their responsibilities, and the consequences of it. We are in a feminist revolt against patriarchal capitalist destruction!”
This year, women in many parts of the World, from Afghanistan to Iran, England, Germany and Scandinavian countries to Australia, demonstrated on the streets shoulder to shoulder on March 8. Women who did not give up their struggle for equality during the processes where women’s rights were badly damaged in many countries of the World, raised their voices against patriarchy, inequality and discrimination.
My favourite banner of this year: “300 years needed to achieve equality”
The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will discuss women’s issues for two weeks and demand solutions. Giving a speech to the UN General Assembly, Guterres announced the great inequality to the World, stating, “In the current state, UN Women predicts that equality is 300 years away.” Guterres said the global progress in women’s rights was “fainting before our eyes” and that the date on which gender equality would be achieved was “far away”.
Number of working women is half of men
The situation in Turkey was also revealed by the “Women with Statistics” research published by the Statistical Institute (TUIK). The results are as we know; women feel insecure and do most of the housework. According to the research, only 28 out of 100 women are working in Turkey in 2021.
We will send the government that does not resign at the ballot box.
Increasing inequality and violence in Turkey also led to the voicing of the slogan “government resign” on the 8th of March demonstrations. Women are demanding the resignation of the government of the Republic, which cannot manage the earthquake crisis and does not stand by the millions of people living in our ten cities when they need the state the most. Even though there have been enormous scandals, there has not been any resignations, and not a single person will resign under the current presidential system.
We will replace this government, which pulls Turkey out of the Istanbul Convention, destroys nature and cities for the sake of profit, polarizes society, imprisons women in the family, legitimizes child marriages, turns LGBTI+ individuals into enemies, closes nurseries and condemns children to sects.
Today, the election date has been announced as May 14, 2023, so we only have 9 weeks left for a fresh start. While we are experiencing the feelings of mourning and rebellion on the one hand, on this March 8, on the other hand, we have hope that we will change this government soon.
President Kılıçdaroğlu and the Ministry of Equality and Women
Overcoming the recent crisis within itself (caused by one of the opposition party’s leader Meral Akşener due to her rejection of approving Kılıçdaroğlu as the candidate), the opposition coalition announced Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as its joint Presidential candidate. This has increased our hopes. We demand that women with feminist sensitivities be present on the new page that Turkey will open in nine weeks. We renew our request to establish a Ministry of Women and Equality in the reconstruction of Turkey.
The hope that we will make new beginnings with the equal participation of women in politics strengthens us.