We Women Will Be in Taksim, Istanbul, on March 8!
As women living in Turkey, for 11 years we have raised our voices in the streets at every March 8 night demonstration against patriarchy, male violence, sexism, heterosexism, capitalism, militarism and war.
Since last March 8, we have lived through a year in which repression against women has continuously increased.
Every day we read news of another woman’s death. In Turkey, three women are murdered every day. Murderers and rapists go unpunished. The state tries to prevent divorce, not male violence.
The ruling AKP has single-handedly taken away our right to abortion in the name of the legislature and judiciary. We are even turned away at the doors of public hospitals. Access to contraception has been restricted. To keep women’s bodies under control, the government constantly moves backward. It is preparing laws that condemn us to precarious working lives without social security.
Because there are very few women’s shelters and counseling centers in Turkey, their presence is merely symbolic. With the restructuring of the Ministry for Women into the Ministry of Family and Social Policies and its neoconservative policies, women’s shelters and counseling centers have become centers that protect the family rather than women and force women into the family.
During the Gezi protests, we women resisted the state’s sexist policies on the streets of Taksim. In doing so, we were directly subjected to police violence and sexual harassment.
As early as 2005, women celebrating March 8 in Beyazıt were subjected to police violence. The European Court of Human Rights ruled against the Turkish state over this police attack.
In Istanbul, women’s resistance and protest against the police violence and restrictions we have experienced continue under the slogan ‘We will abandon neither the nights, the streets nor the squares.’
Taksim remains cordoned off by police today. On the streets where we have raised our voices for women’s freedom for 11 years, this March 8 we face the threat of police violence, sexual harassment and tear gas.
Despite increasing repression, we will not give up our struggle and resistance against male domination!
As we have for the past 11 years, we feminists will hold our night demonstration in Taksim on March 8.
The AKP government, which attacks every area of our lives, is also trying to take away the roads on which we march. Despite all the bans, we will gather in Taksim to protest together.
Even if not all women around the world can be with us in Taksim, we call for solidarity actions worldwide against possible police violence. Together we will overcome the police blockades in Taksim.
Come on, father, come on, husband, come on, police officer, come on, rubber baton!
All the more reason for revolt, all the more reason for revolt, all the more reason for freedom!
Istanbul Feminist Collective