We Women Will Be in Taksim, Istanbul, on March 8!
As women from Turkey, for 11 years we have raised our voices in the streets at the March 8 Feminist Night March every year against patriarchy, male violence, sexism, heterosexism, capitalism, militarism and war.
Since last March 8, we have left behind another year in which attacks on women have continued to increase.
Each new day we read the news of another woman’s death. In Turkey, three women are killed every day. Murderers and rapists go unpunished. The state tries to prevent divorce, not male violence.
The AKP, which alone constitutes the government, legislature and judiciary, has effectively taken away our right to abortion; we are turned away at the doors of public hospitals. Access to contraception has been restricted. The government stops at nothing to control women’s bodies. Laws are being prepared that will condemn us to flexible, precarious working lives. Shelters and counseling centers in Turkey are so inadequate that their presence is merely symbolic. The Ministry of Family and Social Policies, established in place of the abolished Ministry for Women, is turning shelters and women’s counseling centers into centers that protect the family and force women to remain within it through its new policies.
As women who were also on the streets during the Gezi Resistance, we resisted the state’s sexist policies in Taksim. While resisting, we were directly subjected to police violence and harassment.
Women had previously been subjected to police violence during March 8 celebrations in Beyazıt in 2005. The European Court of Human Rights ruled against the Turkish state over this police attack.
Despite the police violence and obstruction we have experienced, Taksim, where women in Istanbul have continued to resist and exist with the words “We will not abandon the nights, the streets or the squares,” is under police blockade today. On the street where we have addressed the world for women’s freedom for 11 years, this March 8 we face the threat of police violence, harassment and pepper spray.
As the pressure on us continues to increase, we do not give up our struggle or our revolt against male domination! As we have for 11 years, this year too we feminists will hold a night march in Taksim on March 8.
The AKP government, which attacks every area of our lives, is also trying to take away the road on which we march. Despite all the bans, we are meeting in Taksim again and raising our voices.
We call on women around the world, even if they cannot stand beside us in Taksim, to raise their voices for women’s freedom against possible police violence and to act in solidarity. Together we will overcome the police barricade in Taksim.
Let the father come, let the husband come, let the police come, let the baton come! Defiant revolt, defiant revolt, defiant freedom!
Istanbul Feminist Collective