We Women Will Be in Taksim, Istanbul, on March 8!
As women of Turkey, every March 8 for 11 years we have risen up against patriarchy, male violence, sexism, heterosexism, capitalism, militarism and war in a night march.
Since last March 8, we have lived through a year of increasing violence against women.
Every day brings news of women’s murders. In Turkey, three women are murdered each day. Murderers and rapists remain unpunished. The state strives to prevent divorces instead of tackling male violence.
The AKP, the ruling party that has proved to be the sole holder of legislative, executive and judicial power, has recently deprived us, de facto, of our right to abortion; public hospitals turn us away. Access to contraception has been restricted. The government does not hesitate to do everything it can to control women’s bodies. It is preparing laws that aim to condemn us to temporary and precarious working lives. As for women’s shelters and counseling centers, they are so few that their number in Turkey is negligible. The Ministry of Family and Social Policies, established after the Ministry for Women was dissolved, transforms women’s shelters and counseling centers into “centers protecting the family,” thus condemning women to confinement within the family.
As women in the streets during the Gezi Park Resistance that took place in Taksim in recent months, we resisted sexist state policies. While resisting, we directly suffered police violence and harassment.
Women had already faced police violence during March 8 celebrations in Beyazıt in 2005. The European Court of Human Rights had ruled against the Turkish Republic over this police assault.
Today Taksim Square, where women have fought and continue to exist with the slogan “We will not abandon the nights or the streets,” despite police violence and the barriers erected before us, is under police blockade.
In the streets where we have fought for women’s emancipation for 11 years, this March 8 we face the threat of police violence, harassment and pepper spray.
Faced with increasing pressure against women, we do not renounce our struggle or our revolt against male domination!
As feminists, we will march this March 8, at night toward Taksim, as we have done for 11 years.
The AKP government, which never stops attacking every area of our lives, wants to seize the road on which we march. Despite the AKP and all its bans, we will meet in Taksim again and raise our voices.
We call on all women around the world to raise their voices and act in solidarity for women’s emancipation and against police violence, even if they cannot be present with us in Taksim that day. Together we will overcome the police barricades!
We are not afraid if the father comes, the husband comes, the police officer comes, the baton comes! Let us persist in revolt, persist in revolt, persist in freedom!
Istanbul Feminist Collective