2014: March 5 Press Release
WOMEN WILL NOT ABANDON THE STREETS OR THE SQUARES!
At the Istanbul Feminist Collective’s call, thousands of women will gather in Taksim on Saturday, March 08, at 19:00 for the twelfth Feminist Night March. ‘Our bodies, our lives, our decisions are ours; keep your family for yourselves’ and ‘we are not abandoning the nights, the streets or the squares; we are in feminist revolt’ will be the banners carried by women, who will voice their demands.
05.03.2014
At the Istanbul Feminist Collective’s call, thousands of women from various women’s organizations, forums and circles will meet outside Galatasaray High School on Saturday, March 08, at 19:00 to hold the Feminist Night March. As on every March 8, this March 8 women will raise their voices against patriarchy, in which life is shaped according to the male gaze and male domination and the husband’s supremacy in the household is accepted, and against heterosexism, which nurtures discrimination and prejudice, male violence, sexism, capitalism, militarism, imperialism and war.
The theme of this year’s twelfth March 8 Feminist Night March, first held in 2003 with the theme ‘war and occupation,’ will be “resistance.” At the Night March, which began with 100 women and has become a major action involving thousands of women, two banners will be carried, reading ‘our bodies, our lives, our decisions are ours; keep your family for yourselves’ and ‘we are not abandoning the nights, the streets or the squares; we are in feminist revolt.’ Women marching from Galatasaray High School to Taksim Square will voice their revolt and demands concerning many issues: the Prime Minister’s statements such as “I do not believe in equality between women and men,” “Every abortion is Uludere,” and “It is not clear whether she is a woman or a girl”; the conservative policies that feed male violence pursued by the AKP government, in power for eleven years; women being regarded as a source of flexible, insecure and cheap labor; women being forced into both flexible work and bearing many children under the veneer of increasing women’s employment; the abortion ban; the increase in murders of trans people and oppression of lesbians and bisexuals through the imposition of heterosexual monogamy on the whole of society; and the exclusion of LGBT people from protection when legislating on hate crimes.
Date: Saturday, March 08
Place: Galatasaray High School
Time: 19:00
WOMEN’S DEMANDS:
MEN OWE US; WE DO NOT WANT A SEXIST DIVISION OF LABOR
“The AKP, which sees us as a source of flexible, insecure and cheap labor, forces us both into flexible work and into bearing many children under the veneer of increasing women’s employment. We object to housework and care services being women’s duties. Whether we work full-time at home or outside the home, we will never stop saying at every opportunity that men, who dump all housework and the burden of care on us, owe us for our unpaid labor.”
WE WILL NOT OBEY MEN
“We now have the courage to say stop to male violence. We know that the violence we experience from our husbands, fathers, brothers and lovers is not fate. Even at the risk of death, we oppose this violence and refuse to obey men.”
WE ARE NEITHER DEVOTED WIVES NOR DEVOTED MOTHERS
“The AKP, taking steps that feed male violence through its conservative policies, shows in its rhetoric that it considers women weak and needy by their ‘nature.’ The Prime Minister’s words ‘I do not believe in equality between women and men’ are the very embodiment of the AKP’s view of women. The solutions produced by this perspective are far from preventing violence; they imprison women within the family and impose the role of ‘devoted’ wife and mother on them.”
ABORTION IS A RIGHT; IT CANNOT BE OBSTRUCTED
By struggling against the Prime Minister, who set things in motion with the words ‘Every abortion is Uludere,’ and the AKP government’s attempt to pass a law banning abortion, we prevented our right to abortion from being banned. But the AKP does in practice what it could not do legally. Public hospitals turn us away at their doors when we request an abortion, even within the legal ten-week period. Most recently, we saw access to abortion blocked in İzmir by the removal of the abortion button. Banning abortion pushes us toward clandestine, unsafe abortion methods and endangers our lives. Abortion is a right; it cannot be obstructed.”
LGBT PEOPLE MUST ALSO BE COVERED BY PROTECTION
“The AKP’s imposition of heterosexual monogamy on all of society causes murders of trans people and increased oppression of lesbians and bisexuals. The AKP, which stands by as LGBT people are subjected to hate crimes in the name of honor, declares once again that it will continue to be an accomplice to these murders by excluding LGBT people from protection when legislating on hate crimes.”
WE WANT REAL JUSTICE AGAINST MALE JUSTICE
“Although two years have passed since Law No. 6284 was enacted to ‘protect women from violence,’ women cannot benefit from the rights specified in the law. For example, they cannot receive temporary financial aid, children’s right to confidential school enrollment does not function as it should, and Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers (ŞÖNİM) do not provide support for our needs. Women are removed from shelters and killed, and it is said that ‘she left of her own accord.’ We do not accept this. Judicial proceedings operate through male domination. We want real justice against male justice that searches for provocation in murder and consent in rape.”
WE DO NOT WANT SEXIST CANDIDATES
“The policies of the AKP government, led by the Prime Minister, can be summed up as corruption for the AKP, poverty and violence for women. Local elections lie ahead. We do not have a single vote to give to sexist candidates / parties that do not question sexist policies. Our vote is for local government that sides with women; our vote is to change the places and the city we live in…”
WE WANT THE PEACE PROCESS ACCELERATED AND MADE TRANSPARENT
“The guns that spoke for thirty years have been silent for the past year. Together we have held onto the hope of a solution to the Kurdish question. But this resolution process is neither going well nor transparent! We want this process accelerated, given a legal basis, and women included as a party to it! We repeat that an urgent solution and many of the rights involved in a solution, foremost education in the mother tongue, are also feminist demands.”
FEMINIST NIGHT MARCH HISTORY:
The first March 8 Feminist Night March took place in 2003 from Taksim Square toward Mis Sokak. At the march, held with the theme of war and occupation, a banner read ‘Hitler, Mussolini, Sharon, Milošević, Bush, Saddam… All men: is that a coincidence?’ 2004 saw women gather at the same place again, this time marching on the theme of femicide with banners reading ‘men hit, the state protects; we want shelters, not graves.’ 2005 saw the march proceed from Galatasaray toward Taksim Square, carrying a banner reading ‘we do not obey the male order.’ 2006 saw the banner ‘feminist revolt,’ while 2007 saw the banner ‘feminist struggle against patriarchy, capitalism, militarism and nationalism.’ 2008 and 2009 had the main slogan ‘feminist struggle against militarism, capitalism, nationalism and patriarchy.’ Women in 2010 shouted ‘feminist revolt, we revolt against femicide,’ and in 2011 they shouted together ‘feminist struggle against the male-dominated order.’ 2012 placed the family on women’s agenda; their banners read ‘we are women, not the family; we are in feminist revolt.’ The Night March, which began in 2003 with around 100 women, drew thousands of women in 2012 . Thousands of women gathering on İstiklal Avenue shouted ‘long live our feminist struggle.’ 2013 saw women chanting ‘our lives, our bodies, our decisions are ours; keep your family for yourselves.’
– You can find the Istanbul Feminist Collective’s statements in English and Turkish in the attachment.
– For the March 8 video, please visit the address below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqAzUNG4S68
– Photos: Serra Akcan, Gülşin Ketenci-Nar Photos
Istanbul Feminist Collective