2015 Feminist Night March

Call to a Meeting for the March 8 Feminist Night March A Call to Feminists! We are meeting to organize the March 8 Feminist Night March together for the 13th time! For 13 years, every March 8, we feminists have held a night march in Taksim with our purple flags and feminist symbols, raising our voices against patriarchy, capitalism and heterosexism. After a year in which attacks on our lives have not let up, while we have continued to resist and struggle, this March 8 we will again raise our rebellion against male domination and strengthen our feminist solidarity. To organize together our night march stretching from Taksim to Tünel, we meet at SFK on Monday, February 16, at 19.00! See you there... Istanbul Feminist Collective  

Call for a Meeting for the March 8 Feminist Night March A Call to Feminists! We are meeting to organize the March 8 Feminist Night March together for the 13th time! For thirteen years, every March 8, as feminists, we have held a night march in Taksim with our purple flags and female symbols to raise our voices against patriarchy, capitalism and heterosexism. After a year in which attacks on our lives have not diminished, and in which we have continued to resist and struggle, this March 8 too we will raise our rebellion against male domination and our feminist solidarity. To organize together our night march from Taksim to Tünel, we are meeting at SFK on Monday, February 16 at 19.00! See you there... Istanbul Feminist Collective

THERE IS NO TURNING BACK FROM OUR RESISTANCE, FROM OUR STRUGGLE! While attacks on women continue, we are at the Feminist Night March for the 13th time; we are in the streets again, always in the streets! We have had another difficult year. Femicide has reached the scale of massacre. By saying "You are not equal," "It is against your nature," "Do not laugh," "Whatever you do, do not have an abortion," they had women killed, they killed women. Those sending messages of condemnation after Özgecan never took responsibility for their role in femicide. They refused to see that the man they called a monster was one of them, that those interfering with what women do fuel male violence. The male domination you nourish took Özgecan from us and threatens every woman's life every day. Misogyny attacks us in every sphere of life: in the government's "family package," on public transport, in values education, in parliament, at home, in the streets... But today, here, we want to speak about resistance to all these attacks, about our struggle to hold on to life despite men and the AKP. Through its employment policies and statements that "women are entrusted to men," the AKP government wants to condemn women to marriage and family. Gold and incentives for those who marry and give birth; restricted social rights to make life difficult if you do not marry... We are not fooled by these lies; we struggle to build the lives we want and create solidarity to do so. The number of women who do not marry increases every day. Those insisting that we marry also obstruct divorce. From the state establishing a divorce ombudsman to the neighbor advising "Do not break up your home, give it another chance," divorce is made harder. The reason for killing that we most often read in femicide cases is a woman's divorce or desire to divorce. Despite all these obstacles, the AKP's nightmare is coming true: women are not giving up on divorce. The new package of flexible work, childbirth assistance and leave has not fooled us at all. We see that you are making women's employment flexible and insecure, and that the result will be greater exploitation of our paid and unpaid labor. We do not fall for your lies. While pressure on women to bear three children, five children comes from the highest levels of the state, and motherhood is presented as the most important career in a woman's life, we women say, "Our bodies are ours; the right to decide about our lives is ours." We did not allow the abortion ban to pass through parliament. In response, a de facto abortion ban was introduced; in all of Istanbul, only three hospitals provide abortion on request. When we exposed this, instead of preventing the crime committed by the hospitals, the Ministry of Health called feminists liars. But we will not give up pursuing our rights or standing in solidarity with one another against this ban. Women have not remained silent against male violence! They will not remain silent! Women exercised their rights more often when subjected to violence. While the number of women reporting men to police stations was 82,205 in 2013, it rose to 118,014 in 2014. Our organized voice rose even louder against the massacres of women that even the media sometimes had to report as "male terror." The male judiciary, which applies unjust provocation reductions, in other words male privilege discounts, in femicide trials, has begun to fear women's organized struggle. It has become more visible that the attitude "Do not come between husband and wife" prepares the process leading to women's deaths. More people are intervening rather than watching violence. We have begun to hear the stories of women who killed men abusing them in order to survive. Self-defense against male violence is a right! They said, "You cannot live as women and men together"; we said, "None of your business." We live as women and men together and fall in love with people of our own gender too. Despite homophobic oppression and resistance to efforts to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the constitution, we said, "We are here," and tens of thousands marched in the Pride March; new LGBTI initiatives were formed. Organized struggle against trans murders continued. The women who left their mark on the growing Kobanê resistance right beside us strengthened our determination to struggle. Fighting not only ISIS but also the male domination oppressing women in the Middle East, for all the women of the Middle East, the YPJ strengthened us on the other side of the border and reminded us of our own power. All this empowerment, struggle and resistance happened despite the misogynist, family-centered AKP, despite the AKP's policies seeking to make us unable to breathe. Today in Turkey, alongside misogyny, hostility to feminism is being spread by the president himself. Because the AKP government knows that feminists are the organized force standing directly in the way of implementing its policies that draw strength from religious conservatism and deny the existence of women who build lives outside the family. The AKP is terrified of women's empowerment. They see feminist words as a threat. Let them keep attacking feminism to break resistance to male domination; we grow stronger through our feminist struggle. Feminism envisages, first and foremost, women claiming their own lives. Whether or not a woman calls herself feminist, feminism touches every woman's life. Every day, more women strengthen the feminist movement and weave women's solidarity by organizing and transforming their own lives. For feminists, for women, there is no turning back! Istanbul Feminist Collective 08.03.2015

2015 Slogan List GENERAL Long live March 8, long live our feminist struggle! Long live March 8! Long live March 8! We will not abandon the nights, the streets or the squares! The world would shake if women were free! We want a world without bosses, pimps or shelters Stop doing housework; let the world stop Woman, life, freedom Long live women's struggle Our labor, our bodies, our identities are ours. We are not shame, not hymens, not property. We are feminists, we are feminists. In the streets, at home, in parliament: feminists everywhere Women everywhere are resisting Women in rebellion, in the streets, at the barricades We are not families, we are women Let men's violence end Abortion is a right; the decision belongs to women! Do not be silent, shout: trans people exist Ayşe and Fatma, Emel and Sibel / Must be able to love one another In the streets, at home, in parliament: lesbians everywhere Women do not want war / Women do not want war, they want peace Long live the Kobanê resistance. For peace, we insist, we insist. Murderer ISIS, collaborator AKP. A thousand salutes to the women resisting in Kobanê. Budgets for shelters, not war!   The streets are ours (chant leader) ---- did you think they were yours? (women) The nights are ours (chant leader) ---- did you think they were yours? (women) Our lives are ours (chant leader) ---- did you think they were yours? (women)   Men, go home to care for children Men, go home to cook Men, go home to do the ironing INVISIBLE LABOR, RAISE YOUR VOICE   Make noise against male domination Make noise against sexism Make noise against transphobia Make noise against homophobia Make noise against militarism Make noise against capitalism Make noise against violence, Make noise against harassment, Make noise against rape MAKE NOISE AGAINST THE MASSACRES OF WOMEN   To militarism ------- No To nationalism ------- No To conservatism ------- No To heterosexism ------- No To capitalism ------- No To patriarchy ------- No (3 times) LONG LIVE OUR ORGANIZED STRUGGLE   FAMILY We are women, not families; we are in feminist rebellion We are women, not families; not in mourning but in rebellion Motherhood is not a career; family is not our destiny Prince Charming, do not bother coming!   Our lives ........ ours (women) Your family ........ yours (women) KEEP IT TO YOURSELVES   MALE VIOLENCE Do not watch violence, intervene! Not monstrosity, male violence! Men, judiciary, media: do not form an alliance. End the collaboration of men, the judiciary and the AKP. Unjust provocation protects men Not male justice, real justice! If I say "No," it means no; in harassment, the complainant's statement is the basis Femicide is political Trans murders are political Let hate murders end Shout so everyone hears; let male violence end Not coincidence, male violence Massacres everywhere, the killers are in our homes Not isolated incidents, male violence Prevent murder, not divorce! We will not be silent, we are not afraid, we will not obey In marriage (chant leader) ---- there is murder (women) Massacres everywhere, the killers are in our homes Men strike, the state protects them. Özgecan's killer: male state violence   Men's love (chant leader) ---- kills women (women) We do not want love that kills (women)   From scolding to slapping (chant leader) ---- do not give him another chance! (women) From slapping to murder (chant leader) ---- do not give him another chance! (women)   Pippa Bacca ------------------ here Serra Sierra ------------------ here Jesca Nankabirwa ------------------ here NOT COINCIDENCE, MALE VIOLENCE   Sevim Zarif ------------------ here Ayşe Yılbaş ------------------ here Güldünya Tören ------------------ here Ayşe Paşalı ------------------ here Sevim Başar ------------------------ here Meryem Yılmaz ------------------ here Hanime Aslan ..................... Pınar İkiz ..................... Özgecan Aslan ..................... NOT ISOLATED INCIDENTS, MALE VIOLENCE   Ignorance .... not Illness .... not Monstrosity .... not Perversion .... not Nature .... definitely not PLAIN AND SIMPLE MALE VIOLENCE   AKP We will certainly bring down the homophobic state Budgets for shelters, not shopping malls End harassment and rape in custody State, take your hands off my body! AKP, take your hands off my life Tayyip, run, run, run, women are coming (slowly at first, then faster) Enemy of feminists, Tayyip Erdoğan Men, patriarchy, the AKP... We will not obey!!   NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS: I come home whenever I want (chant leader) ---- NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS (women) I wear a miniskirt I live with women and men I live with women I get pregnant and do not give birth I get pregnant and have an abortion I do not marry, and I get pregnant I cover my head, I uncover it I do housework if I want, or I do not If I do not feel like it, I do not have sex Yes, I am shameless Yes, I am a feminist => NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS?   NO VOTES: For opponents of abortion (chant leader) ---- NO VOTES (women) For misogynists (chant leader) ---- NO VOTES (women) For homophobes (chant leader) ---- NO VOTES (women) For killers of women (chant leader) ---- NO VOTES (crowds) NO VOTE FROM US FOR A SEXIST CANDIDATE!

Call to a Meeting for the March 8 Feminist Night March A Call to Feminists! We are meeting to organize the March 8 Feminist Night March together for the 13th time! For 13 years, every March 8, we feminists have held a night march in Taksim with our purple flags and feminist symbols, raising our voices against patriarchy, capitalism and heterosexism. After a year in which attacks on our lives have not let up, while we have continued to resist and struggle, this March 8 we will again raise our rebellion against male domination and strengthen our feminist solidarity. To organize together our night march stretching from Taksim to Tünel, we meet at SFK on Monday, February 16, at 19.00! See you there... Istanbul Feminist Collective