The Women’s Platform for Equality, formed by 312 women’s and LGBTI+ organizations in Turkey, released a statement on the occasion of the International Day of Peace: “To achieve peace in the world depends on ensuring gender equality. We do not give up our right to life without war and violence!”
The statement said it is no coincidence that women pioneered the anti-war social movements in the 21st century, as they have been for centuries. “The reason for this is not the compassionate and peaceful character of women or the fact that they are the ones who suffer the most from wars, but that the basic philosophy of war is based on patriarchy. Permanent and sustainable peace in the world will be established through feminism, which envisages equality and freedom for all living things and the earth.”
Here is the full statement:
While wars, economic crisis, attacks on gender equality and human rights have increased in many parts of the world, and that the most cruel and oppressive interpretations of religions threaten the lives of women and LGBTI+s, we are living through perhaps the most difficult times of feminist peace-building in history.
On the other hand, struggle against the domination of women’s bodies and the domination of the earth’s resources meet, and a holistic common struggle becomes widespread. With the rise of oppression and tyranny, the revolt against all kinds of domination also rises.
The facts that the sovereign powers continue to devastate the lives of people and other living things without caring about the future of the planet, the nuclear threat and the arms race, and the impoverishment of the poor by allocating huge budgets to the “defense” industry, do not prevent women from fighting for their own freedom and the future of the world; on the contrary, they meet in the struggle against the same focal point, even if they go through different paths, by revealing the male domination behind all this.
Undoubtedly, Turkey is one of the countries where this situation is the most intense in the world. Turkey is leading the world with its domestic and foreign war-mongering, wildly increasing individual armament, femicide rates reaching the dimensions of massacre, hate and domination discourses of those who think they own the world, the country and women, anti-secular discourses and practices, deepening injustice, lawlessness and impunity for crimes against women.On the other hand, more and more people are realizing that peace is of vital importance in this country.
While Turkey is the first country to sign the Istanbul Convention, which draws a roadmap for states to combat gender-based violence, it is also the first country to withdraw from the Convention. By also opening the local law numbered 6284 to discussion, which was the biggest blow to peace at home.
On the other hand, the common struggle of women from Turkey, who have spent a great deal of effort in for 30-40 years, is also growing for a life that is EQUAL, FREE and NON-VIOLENT. As the Women’s Platform for Equality, we call all women;
- to go beyond abstract wishes for peace, to raise a stronger voice against not just war but also armament, nationalism, racism, sexism and militarism,
- not to make us forget that every war has a handful of winners, made up of arms manufacturers and supporters, and that the only losers are the poor, women and children,
- to condemn all cultural and political ideas regardless of their origin, that portray women’s bodies and labor as trophies.
We know that governments that send troops and weapons to conflict zones and support attacks and occupations, especially the members of the UN Security Council, of which the world’s largest arms exporters are permanent members, are responsible for all war losses and humanitarian crises. We are aware that governments and companies who are benefiting from the war and male-dominated institutions that try to discipline nature, society, women, LGBTI+s and all those they see as “other”, do not want peace in the world.
We underline once again that we will never give up on our common struggle and our right to live without war and violence in order to jointly establish a lasting and sustainable peace.
Long live the solidarity of women of Turkey and the world!
Long live our struggle for peace, freedom, equality, democracy and justice!