2010 Press Statement
On the 100th anniversary of March 8, we say “Long live our feminist struggle and feminist solidarity!” We are still, again, on the streets.
Never breaking the bond between our sisters who died in a textile factory in New York 100 years ago and the women killed by Özay and Pameks, despite low wages, threats of dismissal and laws without social security that condemn us to dependence on men, we say “Our labor is ours!”
Cooking, dishes, laundry, ironing, cleaning, care for children, older people and the sick: we do these endless tasks for mere subsistence. As we take on the world’s care, feed it and clean it, the labor we expend for subsistence is invisible; we are exploited. We become more dependent on men, the family and the home. Women, onto the streets for liberation; men, get to work at home!
In 2010, on the 100th anniversary of March 8, while three women a day are still being killed in Turkey,
We will raise our voices in Taksim against the massacres of women.
While suffering violence from the men close to us in the home called a “Warm Nest”, we were also in the courts against men who attempt to take our lives and murder our sisters with various excuses such as “I loved her so much”.
Against the judiciary that supports male killers as “provoked”, we say “Femicides are political!”
We will not give up being on the streets against harassment and rape. When we are harassed, we will not be ashamed; we will shout! We will stick in our purple pins!
In 2010, on the 100th anniversary of March 8, we are here in Taksim for murdered women, in this place where nights and streets have become threats to women.
Over the past year, three women were killed every day! The men who commit crimes and those who protect them have the same aim! To preserve their power over women.
We Have NOT FORGOTTEN Münevver, Güldünya, Ayşe, Pippa!
We are deprived of institutions where we can find refuge and advice against men’s violence. Local authorities that do not open shelters give millions of dollars to Capital of Culture projects while governing the city with budgets that disregard women.
Under your government, 953 women were killed in the first nine months of 2009. Shelters: if not now, when?
Against militarist power centres that brand opponents as internal enemies, we oppose militarism for peace and freedom!
We reject the values of patriotism and nationalism in which dying and killing are sanctified.
Against the lynching of Kurdish women and detentions and arrests reminiscent of a coup, we say “long live women’s solidarity, collective struggle and peace”.
From Berçelen to Taksim, from Kadıköy to Esenyurt, we maintain our insistence on peace
In 2010, on the 100th anniversary of March 8, in Taksim, we oppose discriminatory and exclusionary practices against homosexuals arising from homophobic anxieties, wherever they come from.
We are here to say “Hands off my body”.
The length of our skirts is not an invitation to men.
We dress as we wish and roam the streets at night as we wish.
Our bodies belong neither to FATHERS, husbands, the state nor any otherworldly authority
For a world in which we are not oppressed or exploited, in which we can say our bodies, identities and labor are ours…
Against the male-dominated order,
Long live our feminist struggle
Long live our feminist solidarity
Feminist Collective