Istanbul Feminist Night March Yearly Summaries

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The 2019 Feminist Night March was organised at a time when bans on demonstrations were becoming increasingly common, even though the two-year state of emergency had ended. Following the general election in the summer of 2018, one-man rule was fully in place. Meanwhile, rallies and statements were taking place across the country ahead of the local elections on March 31, 2019, which would eventually see the AKP lose Istanbul and Ankara. These were the circumstances leading up to March 8, 2019. The November 25 demonstration in 2018 had been the first women's demonstration to be blocked on İstiklal Avenue. Preparations for the night march therefore took account of the possibility that it, too, might be blocked or pushed back.

This year, the invitation to the organising meeting addressed 'feminists', while the call to the demonstration would state that it was 'not open to men'. This wording, without the terms trans or cis, took shape through feedback from the LGBTI+ movement, and agreement was reached on the call. Other discussions about the text, for example over the concept of secularism, took place by email. With the Pride March banned since 2015, the Feminist Night March was the last demonstration that could still draw a large crowd on İstiklal. Although the march had not yet been blocked, this remained a possibility. The importance of emphasising 'we are marching, as we do every year' was discussed in that context.

The declaration opened with a brief assessment: 'Since last March 8, we have been surrounded by all kinds of sexism, hostility to feminism, transphobia and homophobia, and forms of misogyny that have repeatedly made us say: surely this cannot go any further. Those who draw their power from patriarchy have done everything they can to silence us and restrict the spaces in which we live, calling us sinful, immoral or criminal, or asking what we could possibly know.' It emphasised that 'we draw our strength from one another' and set out feminist messages on different issues under the hashtag #BuBirFeministİsyandır [This Is a Feminist Revolt]. The declaration was to centre feminist revolt against patriarchy without becoming overwhelmed by discussion of the political agenda. Its language would assert demands and foreground solidarity, using formulations such as 'we stand in solidarity' and 'we refuse to obey'. It also addressed the feminist strikes being organised around the world. Solidarity with trans prisoner Buse Aydın, who was on a death fast, and with Leyla Güven, who had been on hunger strike for some time, was included, while slogans addressing that year's issues were added to the march's slogan list.

In discussions about the banner, there was agreement on making its message as simple as possible. The political context was also debated. Participants discussed capital's persistent use of feminism as a marketing strategy. On one side stood the image of the strong woman as a marketing device; on the other, hate speech produced by outlets such as Yeni Akit and other forces hostile to women and LGBTI+ people. Two main positions emerged. One insisted that the word patriarchy must appear on the banner: as the number of women attending grew each year, identifying a shared political goal had become more difficult. The other held that a slogan such as 'This is a feminist revolt' was clear enough on its own, accessible to everyone and open to participants bringing their own revolt to the march, with foam-board placards providing further political content. Some participants also considered 'struggle' more political than 'revolt'. The suggestion 'We will not compromise with patriarchy' prompted discussion of the word compromise. Did it suggest that common ground for compromise existed? Or did it point to the way we were being drawn, however unwillingly, into negotiations over reconciling work, home and family life? Following these discussions, the slogan chosen was 'We will not compromise with patriarchy: this is a feminist revolt'.

For the social media action on February 22, the hashtag #BuBirFeministİsyandır [This Is a Feminist Revolt] was chosen, accompanied by images of collective and individual actions in Turkey and around the world. These included abortion rights protests in Argentina and Poland; the photograph of a woman being obstructed as she became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon; the march against battering; a photograph from the anti-manspreading campaign; the peace banner suspended from balloons used the previous year; a woman burning her hijab in Iran; bra-burning protests; an artwork for Nevin; a demonstration in support of Vietnam in the United States; and an image of the artwork 'Ayşe Loves Fatma'.

On March 1, images, videos and calls to demonstrations were shared under #8MartGeliyor [March 8 Is Coming]. For March 7, a series of images was prepared under #8MarttaFeministİsyan [Feminist Revolt on March 8], placing the call to the march over photographs of placards and stencils. Care was taken to balance the issues and forms of representation in all the images used. Their themes included peace, the Kurdish question, labour, care work, the body, abortion, LGBTI+ people, male violence, women's solidarity and feminist struggle. As Twitter's algorithm made it increasingly difficult for the Feminist Night March to trend, there was concern that the social media actions might be less visible than in previous years. Taking this and the possibility of the march being blocked into account, the hashtag #8MarttaYürüyoruz [We Are Marching on March 8] was chosen. A GIF entitled 'What's Happening on March 8?' was also prepared.

Stencils were painted in the streets and posters put up both outdoors and in venues. Images and videos projected by laser onto the Bosphorus Bridge from the Etiler-Arnavutköy area became that year's most widely noticed call to the march and were shared repeatedly on social media. As in the previous year, a text setting out the principles of the march was prepared and circulated in groups.

When deciding which materials to use at the march, it was agreed to cut out the 'feminism' section of the previous year's banner and use it separately. Given the size of the crowd, additional banners were prepared to carry the march's energy throughout the procession. Their wording, 'feminist revolt', echoed the main banner.

The foam-board placard texts addressed the issues of the moment. In response to the government's and its institutions' efforts to replace equality with an emphasis on justice and to remove the term gender from public use, one read: 'Those who deny equality cannot deliver justice! It is called gender equality.' Others addressed shared struggle with migrant women, the economic crisis, alimony, unpaid care work and flexible employment. Although discussions about closing nurseries on the grounds that they caused 'public losses' had begun in 2018, childcare was again highlighted on this year's placards. Finally, the message 'Domestic labour keeps the world turning', also referring to the international strike, was included.

On the morning of March 8, the police announced that no events would be permitted on İstiklal Avenue and that those wishing to hold one would be directed to a side street below it. By order of the Governor's Office, roads in and around Taksim were closed to vehicles from 2 pm. Around the same time, side streets leading onto İstiklal were blocked by police and barricades as far as Tünel. As the march approached, Taksim metro station was also closed. Volunteers and members of the organising committee met to discuss how to respond to the police obstruction, seeking an approach that would allow everyone to feel safe while preserving the march's energy and broad participation.

Despite the announcements and decisions by the police and the Governor's Office, it was announced that participants would still gather outside the French Cultural Centre. Shortly before the demonstration, police used barricades on İstiklal Avenue to try to keep people out, either by searching them or telling them there was no entry. As the crowd grew, this barrier effectively ceased to function. Special operations police were seen stationed on some rooftops. At the appointed time, participants left Feminist Mekan in high spirits and headed towards the French Cultural Centre. From Zambak Street onwards, police blocked İstiklal with barricades and riot officers. The crowd grew along three approaches, İstiklal Avenue, Meşelik Street and Zambak Street, eventually extending into Taksim Square.

The additional banners greatly lifted the atmosphere. For about an hour and a half, the crowd remained in the area, chanting with enthusiasm. Participants called on the police to 'Open, open, open the barricade!' As numbers grew, people were pushed forward and pressed together around the main banner. When the police refused to open the route, protesters pushed against the barricade. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Attacking from both the front and the rear, they hemmed the women in. A group took the initiative and began moving down Sıraselviler Avenue. With one of the additional banners and someone carrying a megaphone on that side, a march began to form. A substantial part of the crowd followed, and an unplanned march with banners and slogans continued all the way to Eminönü.

The party that followed took place at The Mekan with a very large turnout. Stamps bearing the feminist symbol had been prepared in advance and were used at the entrance, and Ritim Kolektif performed.

In the days after the march, an online campaign targeted it on Twitter with the accusation that participants had 'whistled at the call to prayer during the March 8 Night March'. Politicians then joined in. At a rally, Erdoğan targeted the march, saying: 'The other day, a group that supposedly gathered in Taksim for Women's Day under the leadership of the CHP and HDP showed disrespect to the call to prayer with whistles and slogans.' In Mis Street, a group wearing robes and turbans marched through the area of bars, chanting religious slogans and 'May the hands raised against the call to prayer be broken'. After lengthy discussions, a response was drafted. There were differences within the organising committee, and a fuller discussion was deferred to the evaluation meeting. Kadın Savunması was also criticised for issuing a separate statement alongside the agreed text.

At the evaluation meeting, most speakers considered it worthwhile to have issued a statement. Others argued that no statement was necessary and criticised it for marginalising opposition to religious pressure. Nevertheless, there was agreement that the resulting text had been as inclusive and straightforward as possible on these points. The way it had been discussed in the WhatsApp and email groups, journalists' persistent requests for comment and the resulting rush were also criticised. The meeting discussed the need for future statements to address women directly, strengthen them rather than leave them isolated, and bring their demands to the fore.

The assessment of the demonstration reflected different concerns and positions. Despite the march being blocked, the size of the crowd had lifted everyone's spirits. At the same time, participants discussed the future of demonstrations in light of the violence increasingly directed against them and the recent statement by then Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu that 'İstiklal Avenue is our red line'. They considered what could be done to sustain the march the following year without losing its legitimacy or its broad participation.

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The state of emergency was still in force when preparations began for March 8, 2018. In November 2017, muftis had been granted the authority to officiate marriages, a change that attracted considerable public attention and active protest from the women's movement. War returned to the agenda with Operation Olive Branch, launched in late January 2018. In February, Erdoğan announced that he had instructed officials to work on the issue of adultery. The global rise of the right, xenophobia and hostility to migrants, attempts to roll back women's gains, and the fuelling of anti-LGBTI+ hostility were also reflected in Turkey. Attacks on Law No. 6284 began, while the powers and activities of the Directorate of Religious Affairs expanded into more and more areas. Following the 2017 ban on all LGBTI+ events in Ankara, the ban on QueerFest in Istanbul further strengthened anti-LGBTI+ hostility.

This year's invitation to the organising meeting addressed 'women and trans people'. The call in the Facebook event for the demonstration used the same wording. In response, a group of LGBTI+ people created a Facebook event called the 'March 8 Cis Feminist Night March' to criticise this formulation. The wording had emerged through years of discussion, and the call had been changed following interventions by the LGBTI+ movement. It continued to change. At the first meeting after lengthy Facebook discussions, participants stressed that naming trans people was important for trans visibility and that the formulation had been agreed with those concerned. It was noted that 'not open to cis men' had been used in calls for some time, and participants agreed to continue using it for the time being, although they were not entirely comfortable with it. The meeting also addressed the political problems of not saying 'women' when discussing the violence and discrimination women face because they are women. Participants discussed developing shared demands with trans people on issues such as violence and reflecting this in the slogans. The issue was not definitively resolved, but a broad discussion took place.

It was agreed to call participants to gather outside the French Cultural Centre at 7.30 pm. In choosing the main banner's wording, the aim was to avoid both excessive didacticism and irony. The banner would be kept short, leaving more detailed political messages to the foam-board signs and placards. Its message took shape through discussion of the question 'What does feminism do?' In keeping with efforts to make the demonstration's texts as empowering as possible, it was proposed that this year's declaration should point towards 'liberation through feminism' as a way out of the difficulties experienced throughout the year.

The foam-board messages about male violence and patriarchy were: 'Femicide, child abuse, harassment, rape / All are male violence!'; 'Not isolated incidents, not a coincidence, certainly not illness or perversion: MALE VIOLENCE!'; and 'Patriarchy will go; we will stay!' Following the 2017 debate over marriages officiated by muftis, discussions of the Directorate of Religious Affairs' vast budget and its wider interventions in women's lives and family matters, other slogans read: 'The Directorate, muftis, theologians everywhere / Where are equality and freedom?' (reverse: 'Get used to it: LGBTI+ people are here!'); and 'Those who want to prevent divorce should abolish marriage' (reverse: 'As women grow poorer, the Directorate grows richer'). On war, the chosen slogans were 'Keep hatred, fascism and militarism away!' and 'The money poured into war comes out of women's pockets'. In response to the debate over adultery, 'My sexuality is not a crime; your prohibitions are violence' was added. Labour slogans included 'Care work at home, unequal pay at work / Men are stealing our lives' (reverse: 'Men steal our labour') and 'Sick, disabled, young or old: why do women care for everyone? What are men doing?' Responding to emergency decrees and the state of emergency, another read: 'The women's organisations closed under the state of emergency are here! Women's solidarity is everywhere!' 'Long live our feminist struggle' appeared on the backs of the signs in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian and Arabic.

During preparations, it was decided to write and circulate a reminder of the march's principles: a shared banner, placards without organisational signatures, no cis men and no separate organisational blocs. The text would explain that organisational representation and branding, marching in separate blocs and carrying groups' symbols prominently at the front were contrary to these principles. It would be shared with organisations and circulated in groups.

A slogan workshop was also planned to broaden the chants and placard texts. A stencil workshop had served this purpose in 2014. This year's workshop themes were:

- Labour, women's impoverishment, emergency decrees and women made unemployed

- Peace and militarism

- Hate murders, murders of trans people and the situation of trans prisoners brought to public attention by Diren

- The Directorate of Religious Affairs

- Sexual abuse and sexual violence

- Migration, migrant women and solidarity across borders

- Abortion

- Sexuality and the body

- Male violence and male justice

- Defending our lives and taking control of them

Alongside the workshop, a social media action under #Benim8MartSloganım [My March 8 Slogan] sought suggestions, which were added to the list of placard texts. Many of the placards made at the workshop and brought to the march addressed sexuality and the body, with considerable colour and variety. To also draw attention to policies of war and make a shared feminist call for peace visible, the committee prepared a banner reading 'PEACE', suspended in the air from balloons and carried within the march. It proved difficult to carry in the rain. The march also featured a purple illuminated 'Stronger Together' banner and a feminist symbol incorporating a raised fist.

Other social media hashtags used for the demonstration were #8MarttaFeministİsyan [Feminist Revolt on March 8] and #8MarttaTaksime [To Taksim on March 8]. These posts mainly used images from previous years' demonstrations.

Leaflets were left in venues in Taksim and handed out in the squares in Kadıköy and Beşiktaş. Old foam-board placards were cut into photo frames bearing the words 'Resister of the Year' and 'I toss my hair; I defend my rights', which attracted considerable interest during leafleting. Posters were put up and badges produced; the badges were handed out during leafleting and on the day of the march. Stencil work took place in Kadıköy and Taksim. A video calling people to the march was made and shared. Beyond social media actions, images were projected onto walls as another creative form of action.

It was clear that many volunteers would be needed to prevent confusion on the day of the march, so a meeting was planned in advance to assign tasks. Participants gathered early at Feminist Mekan on the day and went together to the French Cultural Centre. Because KCDP and Kampüs Cadıları had called their participants to Mis Street, further along the intended route, there was a period of crowding and confusion. After some effort, the banner was brought to the front, and the march began, continuing to Tünel. The size of the crowd made it difficult for the organising team to make its voice and message heard by everyone. Afterwards, discussions about how to carry the demonstration's energy throughout such a large crowd led to the idea of placing long horizontal banners at intervals within the march, an approach used in subsequent years.

This year's night march, estimated to have drawn around 40,000 participants, made the front page of The New York Times. Some news sources put the number at 50,000, making it the largest Feminist Night March to date.

The party after the march was again held at The Mekan. The venue was packed for an evening featuring Ritim Kolektif and DJs.

After the march, both pro-government accounts and outlets and some sectarian left-wing accounts on social media used its placards to target the demonstration. Photographs from previous years were also circulated in this campaign, particularly to incite transphobic and homophobic hostility. March 9 increasingly became a day of attacks on the march held the evening before.

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Signed by: Feminists

Preparations for the 2017 March 8 Feminist Night March began under the state of emergency declared after the July 15, 2016 ‘coup attempt’. Dismissals and association closures through emergency decrees continued relentlessly. From September 11, 2016, municipalities won by the DBP began to be seized under these decrees. On November 4, eleven HDP MPs were arrested along with co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ; the HDP was parliament’s third-largest party. Trustees were appointed one after another to municipalities won by HDP candidates, and elected mayors, including Gültan Kışanak, were arrested. Women’s associations and centres in the region, where women sought help to escape male violence, were also closed after the trustees took over. Investigations were opened against the Academics for Peace who had signed ‘We Will Not Be a Party to This Crime’, and some were removed from academia.

As democratic rights were progressively dismantled under the state of emergency, the Parliamentary Divorce Commission report published on May 14, 2016 reinforced the AKP’s policies that centred the family rather than women. A referendum was scheduled for April 16, 2017 on constitutional changes introducing a presidential system that meant one-man rule.

A bill introduced in parliament in November 2016 that would have pardoned men convicted of sexually abusing children was withdrawn following women’s struggle. Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya tweeted: ‘The bill on early marriages, which has been publicly debated and aims to remedy the grievances of thousands of families, will be reconsidered.’

Events in 2016, including a man kicking a woman on a bus for wearing shorts and another man attacking a pregnant woman in a park, signalled a period in which attacks on particular ways of life, especially through women, were felt more intensely.

Despite this bleak picture, feminists and the women’s movement retained enormous energy and hope. The feminist strike movement that began in Poland and continued in Argentina was spreading in waves. By March 8, women from 55 countries had joined the strike call. Statements arrived from country after country, almost all linking their own central struggles to the broader shared context taking shape around the strike. The idea that women stopping their work, even for one day, would shake the world generated excitement. The women’s movement in Turkey shared it.

Alongside the feminist strike wave, the withdrawal of the amnesty for sexual abusers and the possibility that a ‘no’ vote in the coming referendum could change the oppressive, authoritarian regime provided motivation as preparations began. On January 28, independent feminists and women from dozens of women’s groups and political parties came together to articulate and amplify women’s reasons for voting ‘no’, around the words ‘Not alone; #no: Women Are Strong Together towards March 8’. The 2017 video invitation reflected this energy through the language and slogans of the global feminist strike movement.

After the Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK) dissolved in 2016, its Twitter and Facebook accounts were transferred to the March 8 Feminist Night March. The İFK / Feminist Collective signature used for the march for ten years was dropped. Feminists who had attended the 2016 preparatory meetings called the organising meeting.

The Socialist Feminist Collective (SFK), which was discussing and deciding to end its activities around the same time, handed its premises over to feminists. İFK’s email address became feministler@gmail.com, and the SFK premises became Feminist Mekan.

This year, partly through Women Are Strong Together, preparations strengthened relations with women’s groups beyond the Istanbul Feminist Collective’s network. Feminists had already worked with groups outside that network through the 2012 Abortion Is a Right, Women Decide Platform, the July 2014 Emergency Action Group Against Femicide and, most recently, the referendum ‘no’ campaign. This helped bring many more feminists from mixed-gender groups who located themselves within the feminist movement into the organising work in 2017.

Discussions of the banner slogan considered whether saying ‘no’ in the referendum should be the march’s central message. Participants agreed to go beyond a simple ‘no’, addressing what the presidential system would mean for women’s lives: a message rejecting male domination, affirming that feminist struggle would continue and emphasising women standing together.

Preparations were intensive. At the call of Women Are Strong Together, people added the women’s strike logo to their social media profiles on March 6 and called an online action. The ‘no’ campaign was organised alongside stalls for the night march, and actions expressed support for the strike. Planning became more detailed: there were more stewards, new foam-board signs and many printed flags. Anticipating roadworks and a narrowed route, organisers made a banner that could split in two. Its two-part message was ‘No to interference in our lives; there is no turning back from our feminist struggle’. Social media invitations used #8MarttaTaksimdeyiz on March 5 and #FeministGeceYürüyüşü on March 7.

Alongside these developments, the leaflet and press statement stressed ‘we do not forget’, placing the bombings across the country, the war in Syria, the targeting of Academics for Peace, the Divorce Commission, the amnesty for child abusers and attacks on women’s ways of life on the March 8 agenda.

Organisers felt that Taksim, particularly after the changes following Gezi, was now mainly used by tourists and men and was a place women visited less in everyday life. They therefore distributed leaflets there without opening a stall. Stalls were set up in Beşiktaş and Kadıköy instead. Thus 2017 was the year organisers stopped setting up stalls in Taksim.

On March 8, at the call of Women Are Strong Together, feminists gathered in Cihangir Park. They read the call, laid fabric on the ground and painted a banner, and read the solidarity statement for the strike prepared by Women Are Strong Together. A long, narrow vinyl banner reading ‘Give Voice to the Strike’ was also printed and hung from the artwork in Tünel.

The 2017 march was the largest and most exuberant yet, with figures of 40,000 participants being discussed. There was barely room to walk on İstiklal Avenue. Despite the long-established tradition of a shared banner and unsigned placards, TJA, SKM, HDP Youth and Sosyalist İşçi arrived with placards bearing their names, prompting brief arguments with the organising team.

As in previous years, the organising team invited everyone to celebrate together afterwards. The party at The Mekan drew around a thousand people.

The previous year’s daytime rally in Kadıköy had been banned, and participants had tried to hold it by dispersing through the market area and marching. In 2017, applications were made for rallies in both Kadıköy and Bakırköy. Both were initially refused, but objections secured permission for Bakırköy. The daytime March 8 rally, held in Kadıköy for years, took place in Bakırköy for the first time in 2017.

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Signed by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

As preparations for March 8, 2016 began, several decisions had been made about the Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK). The Socialist Feminist Collective (SFK), part of İFK, was discussing whether to renew or dissolve itself and had decided in late 2015 to limit its outward-facing activities. The autumn 2015 issue of its magazine Feminist Politika was its last. After Amargi’s dissolution in December 2012, another feminist organisation had thus suspended its activities. SFK handed its premises over to feminists, and during the 2016 march preparations a volunteer committee began reorganising it as Feminist Mekan and building a solidarity network. Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways also said it could no longer follow İFK’s activities, and Filmmor withdrew around the same time. On July 9, 2015, İFK announced it was limiting its activities, and in November it closed its internal mailing list. Its name was still used for some work, including Women Are Reclaiming Their Lives. Preparations for the 2016 March 8 Feminist Night March also began with a meeting invitation signed by İFK. This was the last year to begin under that name.

With İFK’s mailing list closed, proposals and discussion topics were sometimes raised on cinayetlereisyandayiz@googlegroups.com. Meeting notes were sent there, to feminist@yahoogroups.com and to independent feminist women’s groups.

During the preparations, the Women’s Initiative for Peace and the Emergency Action Group Against Femicide remained very active. The Women’s Initiative for Peace was running a campaign called ‘We Stand for Life’. On July 14, 2015, LezBiFem held an action in Kadıköy foregrounding lesbian and bisexual visibility, with the banner ‘We are lesbians, we are bisexuals, we are feminists; we will not fall into line’. People from LezBiFem actively attended the 2016 preparatory meetings.

The ‘resolution process’, whose foundations were laid in 2009, had continued through 2015 despite intermittent tensions. On July 17, 2015, President Erdoğan declared that he did not recognise the ten-point ‘Dolmabahçe Agreement’ announced with AKP and HDP participation. Turkey went into the June 7 election in the shadow of the June 5 bombing of an HDP rally in Diyarbakır that killed five people. The AKP received 40.8 per cent of the vote and lost its parliamentary majority for the first time. The AKP annulled the June 7 election, and conflict escalated on the way to a new election on November 1. Bombs began exploding across Turkey. On July 20, the Suruç massacre killed 33 people. On September 8, HDP buildings were attacked nationwide. Between June 7 and November 1, Turkey’s deadliest massacre took place in Ankara: two suicide bombers attacked the October 10 peace rally, killing 103 people. Fighting took place in Cizre, Sur and Silopi. On February 7, 2016, more than a hundred people were killed in basements in Cizre. As preparations for the March 8 march continued, there were fears of a similar massacre in Sur.

In this atmosphere, the first preparatory meeting on February 11, 2016 concluded that the main theme could emphasise feminist struggle, solidarity and women’s strength. The march would begin outside the French Consulate at 19:00 and head towards Tünel. As since 2014, working groups were established. Volunteers were assigned to a texts committee to write and circulate the call and press statement, a visuals committee to propose images and social media invitations, a party committee to arrange the venue and celebration afterwards, and a budget committee. The meetings discussed appropriate intervention to prevent cis men from joining a march open to women and trans people, and using megaphones to ask men to leave the square.

Weekly preparatory meetings for the fourteenth Feminist Night March on Tuesday, March 8, began on February 11, 2016. Preparations were announced in a text addressed to women and trans people, entitled ‘A March 8 Calendar for Feminists’ and signed ‘feminists’. As in 2015, a questionnaire was sent from feministler@gmail.com to mailing lists addressing those saying ‘I Want to Help Prepare the March 8 Feminist Night March Too!’. It asked when, where and with which tasks they could help within the announced schedule. Options included making banners and placards, helping with work after 13:00 on March 8, setting up and staffing stalls, carrying foam-board placards at the front, pulling the sound cart, leading chants, selling tickets at the party entrance and selling badges.

Women and trans people were invited to distribute leaflets and collectively devise slogans at a workshop. On Sunday, February 28, a stall opened outside Süreyya Opera House in Kadıköy at 15:00, followed by a slogan and placard workshop at SODİD at 17:00. Participants finalised the chants and the main banner: ‘Feminist struggle for our labour, our bodies, our sexuality and our liberation’. In response to the massacres between June 7 and November 1, the deaths in Cizre, Silopi and Sur, and the curfews, the placards and press statement stressed the demand for peace. One foam-board sign read ‘Sur, Cizre, Silopi... Women do not consent to this war’. Stencilling and wall-writing followed meetings of the Yoğurtçu Women’s Forum. Other stalls were set up outside Galatasaray High School and at the entrance to Mis Street. The calendar also included the daytime March 8 rally planned for Sunday, March 6, but it was banned for the first time that year. Women gathered in Kadıköy, dispersed through the market area and marched there.

On March 3, 2016, an announcement to mailing lists explained that weekly organising meetings had been taking place and that the final meeting would be on Friday, March 4 at Feminist Mekan; notes from the previous meeting were attached. İFK also invited more feminists to come together to organise the march for the fourteenth time. On the night of March 6, İFK’s Facebook page was hacked. A false announcement claimed that the Taksim march was cancelled and moved to Yenikapı. The account was quickly recovered and the invitation corrected.

During the 2016 march there were frequent arguments with police, particularly over chants about Sur, Cizre and Kobanê. After the march dispersed, police in Galatasaray tried to silence those chanting to draw attention to Cizre, Sur and Silopi. There was also debate about women from groups such as KJA and Kampüs Cadıları walking together and chanting their own slogans rather than joining those led by the march stewards. Kampüs Cadıları shared a video presenting itself as a separate group within the march.

A poster and invitation announced a post-march gathering at The Mekan at 21:00, where Ritim Kolektif would perform. An entrance fee of 5 lira was charged for the first time, and a female-symbol stamp was applied to participants’ arms at the door. The party was packed; there was no room left at The Mekan.

Evaluation meetings noted that identity, bodies, sexuality and war were prominent, while there were fewer placards and messages about labour and capitalism. They also noted insufficient emphasis on trans murders. One of the year’s most popular slogans was ‘There’s fuck-all in the fridge; there’s revolt on the streets’. Organisers said they needed to reach the gathering point earlier: the crowds and congestion made it difficult even for those with megaphones to organise the space, and keeping the main banner at the front and participants behind it took considerable effort.

It was reiterated that the Feminist Night March had no VIP protocol, and that its principles therefore neither prioritised nor accepted members of parliament taking precedence at the front banner.

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Signed by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

After the Gezi resistance, participation in the night march became a mass phenomenon, and the women’s movement increasingly acted together. The March 8 Feminist Night March emerged as the first and only space of mass resistance able to gather in Taksim after Gezi. The end of the peace process and ISIS’s attack on Kobanê were major developments in 2014–2015. Women’s role in the Kobanê resistance resonated widely in Turkey and around the world. That year, government officials also targeted feminists with statements rejecting equality between women and men. Feminists were organising in three main areas. First, the Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK) followed the cases of Nevin Yıldırım and Yasemin Çakal and highlighted women forced to kill to avoid being killed. The ‘Women Are Reclaiming Their Lives’ reports began appearing in January 2015 around this issue. Second, the Emergency Action Group Against Femicide, established at İFK’s call in July 2014, continued its meetings. Third, the Women’s Initiative for Peace continued to meet. Feminists also had things to say about the general election scheduled for June 2015.

The 2015 Feminist Night March was organised more comprehensively, taking account of the previous year’s police barricade and the debates about pushing against it. Since 2014, police had begun closing Taksim Square. The route was reversed, and participants were called to gather outside the French Cultural Centre. The practice of making a video invitation, begun the previous year, continued.

For the first time, a volunteer form was created and an open call to help organise was issued on social media. The invitation sent from feministler@gmail.com addressed those saying ‘I Want to Help Prepare the March 8 Feminist Night March Too!’. Around thirty feminists, most of whom had never previously attended feminist meetings, joined the organising work. This practice would grow in subsequent years.

Before the march, various badges were made, stalls were set up, leaflets were distributed and stencils were used to announce it. For the first time, organisers decided to print foam-board placards and carry them at the demonstration.

Inspired by İFK’s ‘Women Are Reclaiming Their Lives’ reports, the banner slogan was ‘We are reclaiming our lives’. Unlike the reports, the slogan referred not only to women forced to kill or injure to avoid being killed, but to all women. Smaller phrases alongside it highlighted different forms of resistance: ‘We resist male justice’, ‘We are not starting families’, ‘We do not obey’, ‘We refuse to have three children’, ‘We laugh out loud’ and ‘We live together, women and men’. Placards, foam-board signs carried behind the main banner for the first time, including ones in Kurdish and Armenian, and the press statement likewise emphasised women reclaiming their lives and resisting AKP policies. Alongside the main banner, a sixty-square-metre ‘We Revolt Against Femicide’ banner was carried lengthways.

Participation reached around 15,000–20,000. The march gathered outside the French Cultural Centre and continued to Tünel, where the press statement was read to an exuberant crowd. Declaring ‘We are reclaiming our lives’, it foregrounded women’s resistance to AKP policies and their struggle against war policies and heterosexism.

This year, the invitation to the party at The Mekan added the phrase ‘Open to women and trans people’.

After March 8, feminists attended the hearings of Hanime Aslan on March 13, Yasemin Çakal on March 19 and Nevin Yıldırım on March 25, and made press statements. This was also the last year a March 8 rally was permitted in Kadıköy.

Podcast

Signed by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

Feminists took an active part in the June 2013 Gezi resistance as an independent political subject. Independent feminists, women’s groups and women from mixed-gender groups who had worked together in the 2012 ‘Abortion Is a Right, Women Decide’ campaign grew closer through Gezi. This strengthened feminist organising and feminists’ legitimacy within other social movements. During the resistance, the June 8 march ‘We Are on the Streets for a Life Without Tayyip and Without Harassment!’ was organised together with women taking part in the resistance. Soon afterwards, another large march against police harassment took place in Taksim. The Pride march that summer filled İstiklal Avenue from end to end, with participation reported at 100,000. The 2014 March 8 Feminist Night March would therefore draw more people than previous years.

Correspondence about the 2014 Feminist Night March took place on both istanbulfeministkolektif@googlegroups.com, established on January 27, 2014, and cinayetlereisyandayiz@googlegroups.com. The We Revolt Against Femicide campaign had wound down, so its mailing list was used less frequently.

The Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK) called the first meeting. In previous years, preparations for the March 8 Feminist Night March began in late February or early March, usually with two meetings. In 2014, the first meeting openly inviting feminists took place on February 17, following an earlier İFK meeting about the march. Alongside independent feminists, many women from mixed-gender organisations attended. Working together since the ‘Abortion Is a Right, Women Decide’ campaign undoubtedly contributed to this turnout. Another important reason was that the march took place in Taksim. After Gezi, Taksim was progressively closed to demonstrations and protests: first police surrounded Gezi Park, then no demonstrations were allowed in Taksim Square. Demonstrating in Taksim mattered to the socialist left opposition.

The first meeting reiterated the principle that placards should carry no organisation’s or platform’s signature, and the importance of writing placards and deciding their messages together at preparatory meetings. Many independent feminists attended the 2014 meetings and helped organise the march. Women doing women’s politics within mixed-gender groups did not take particularly active organising roles. As in 2013, feminist groups provided the budget. Independent feminists who had organised previous marches shaped the demonstration’s message. Numerous meetings were held, and working groups were formed for international solidarity, press work and the slogan workshop.

The call invited people to gather in Galatasaray at 19:00. A video invitation was made for the first time. The written call emphasised abortion rights, femicide and attacks on every aspect of women’s lives. It began ‘A Call to Women and Trans People’, the first time this wording had been used.

To build public support in case of police intervention or the march being prevented, organisers decided to run an international campaign simultaneously. A statement was written and circulated internationally, building support abroad. This was also the first year of a social media action using #feministgeceyuruyusu. Intensive press work before the march included three press notices.

Organisers decided that the banner should emphasise patriarchy and private life. They agreed to foreground the name Feminist Night March and a message addressing women’s presence both in the family and on the streets. The slogan became ‘We will not abandon the nights, the streets or the squares! Feminist revolt’. The 2012 banner, ‘We are women, not families; we are in feminist revolt’, would be carried as a second banner. The main banner was printed on vinyl in case police used water cannon. With funds raised by independent feminists, 120 flags were made and a thousand whistles, tambourines and shiny masks were bought to distribute during the demonstration.

As every year, Emekçi Kadınlar (EKA), who celebrated March 8 under the political slogan ‘March 8 is red and will stay red’, called a demonstration. They were emailed and asked to take care not to clash with the Feminist Night March. Ten days before March 8, organisers learned of calls to gather in Tünel and Taksim at 19:00 for Abdocan’s (Abdullah Cömert’s) birthday. İFK emailed those organisers, reminding them that March 8 was Women’s Day and that feminists had marched with thousands of women and trans people for years, and asked them to respect this. Two days before March 8, Kaldıraç also called a demonstration in Taksim at 19:30.

The Feminist Night March Preparatory Committee was ready for the post-Gezi crowds. For the first time, participation reached the tens of thousands. The crowd was determined and exuberant. Women from Halkevleri, who had issued a call under their group’s name contrary to the march’s conventions, arrived with their orange symbols, diamond-patterned placards and the hard hats associated with Gezi, and took positions in front of the banner. The We Will Stop Femicide Platform did not join the march, having gathered in Taksim for its own action at 18:30. Around 20:30, women from the platform joined the Kaldıraç and EKA groups with their own flags.

As the procession approached the French Cultural Centre in the rain, the other groups’ demonstrations should have ended, but around a hundred protesters from Kaldıraç, Partizan and EKA were waiting silently. Men stood to the sides and women with flags stood in the middle. Some in the large group of men at the sides also carried flags. The groups were asked to move aside, put away their flags, have the women join behind the banner and have the men leave. Partizan put away its flags; Kaldıraç and EKA refused. Instead, the demonstration became a site of argument. Alongside verbal attacks, members of Kaldıraç physically attacked trans people. The Preparatory Committee then decided to end the march without reading the press statement. Its principles included protecting the safety of participating women, recognising the march as a space where women came to walk joyfully side by side, and completing it in the way established over the years. It therefore decided to avoid the turmoil that pushing against the barricade could cause. A brief exchange followed between the police and the organising team. The police suggestion to ‘read your press statement’ was rejected: the organisers said no statement would be read unless the barricade was opened.

Almost all participants left after the march was declared over. But in front of the feminist banner, women from Kampüs Cadıları and Halkevleri refused to fold it away and end the action, disregarding the march’s organising principles and concerns. Together with EKA women, these groups briefly pushed against the barricade, then decided to end their action. After short statements by EKA and Halkevleri women, they finished with Bella Ciao. Kaldıraç and Partizan had already left while these statements were being made. The area was completely empty ten minutes after the Feminist Night March was declared over. İFK stewards remained until the mixed-gender groups’ actions ended. As they dispersed, women left the banner on the ground; İFK members collected it.

The press statement, which was not read on the street but was sent to the press and shared on social media, addressed male violence against women, family policies and criticisms of the Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centres (ŞÖNİM), and emphasised the Gezi resistance and the peace process.

Numerous statements were published afterwards, including by EKA, Kaldıraç and Halkevleri Women. To help clear up misinformation and leave a record for feminist history, İFK published a brief account of the march’s principles and what had happened. Entitled ‘Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK) Evaluation of the March 8, 2014 Feminist Night March’, it was sent to feminist organisations and circulated on feminist mailing lists.

İFK called a forum to evaluate what had happened. Kaldıraç called a separate open meeting. At the İFK forum, Halkevleri women and feminists discussed how disregarding a collective decision undermined trust. The texts and discussions arising from this experience left an important body of knowledge for subsequent years.

Podcast

Signed by: Feminists

During this active period for the Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK), the decision to call the march was made at an İFK meeting. That year’s agenda included the abortion rights campaign and the case of Nevin Yıldırım, which feminists followed and brought to public attention. Both featured in the call to the march.

Working together in the ‘Abortion Is a Right, Women Decide’ campaign also encouraged individual women involved in women’s politics within mixed-gender groups to attend the march’s meetings. They were not, however, active in organising it. Calls and statements were issued by İFK, which did not include mixed-gender groups.

Around 3,000 people joined the march in 2013. The ‘Abortion Is a Right, Women Decide’ campaign contributed to the increase, but a more important factor was that young women at universities had begun to see the March 8 Feminist Night March as a place for them. More people attended individually or in small groups rather than as organised contingents. The AKP’s intensifying policies, which denied women’s equality and placed the family rather than women at their centre, also contributed to the growing turnout.

With the abortion rights struggle in mind, the meetings discussed centring the banner slogan on the body. But they decided to place liberation at the heart of the wording rather than violence and abortion, and agreed to include family policies. The resulting slogan was ‘Our bodies, our lives, our decisions are ours; keep your family to yourselves’. The banner was signed ‘feminists’. A second, smaller banner read ‘ŞÖNİM (Koza) serves men and cannot prevent male violence’.

For the first time, the 2013 organisers drew up a comprehensive shopping list for Eminönü and established a budget. They decided to seek contributions from individual feminists as well as the İFK ‘constituents’ of the We Revolt Against Femicide campaign.

Artists involved in organising the previous year’s march had introduced stencilling. In 2013, a group of artists again prepared stencils together with the organising team.

Women gathered in Galatasaray at 19:30 and marched towards Taksim, where the press statement was read. It focused on family policies and abortion. It criticised Law No. 6284, which had come into force in 2012, and the Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centres (ŞÖNİM) established in the same period. It also addressed heterosexism and the violence and discrimination experienced by trans people, highlighted Nevin Yıldırım’s case, condemned the legal action to close the Van Women’s Association, and expressed solidarity with the women from İŞTAR who had been arrested while carrying out shelter work.

The post-march party took place at The Mekan. There was no admission charge; instead, a collection box was passed around in solidarity with Nevin. Attendance far exceeded that of previous years.

A dispute about transphobia that arose during the march was discussed together at a subsequent meeting. Participants agreed on the principles of not discriminating against march participants and not generalising transphobic attitudes by attributing them to all feminists.

Podcast

Meeting convened by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

Signed by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

Preparatory meetings for the 2012 Feminist Night March were initiated by feminists already working together in the Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK). Correspondence again took place on cinayetlereisyandayiz@googlegroups.com. The call to the march addressed issues on the feminist movement’s agenda, including male violence, femicide, unpaid labour and court cases being followed. It emphasised organised feminist struggle against patriarchy and sexist, homophobic and militarist policies. The text began with ‘A Call to Women’.

The call to the march addressed issues on the feminist movement’s agenda, including male violence, femicide, unpaid labour and court cases being followed. It emphasised organised feminist struggle against patriarchy and sexist, homophobic and militarist policies. The text began with ‘A Call to Women’.

In choosing the main theme, the enactment of Law No. 6284 in 2012, the renaming of the Ministry for Women as the Ministry for the Family, and the links drawn between violence and family policies brought ‘the family’ into focus. The main banner slogan was therefore ‘We are women, not families; we are in feminist revolt’.

Although there had been little contact on the subject during the year, participants met before the preparatory meetings to address disputes at previous marches. Meetings in late February brought together people from Lambda, LuBUnya, Voltrans, İllet, Amargi, the Socialist Feminist Collective and Mor Çatı. They were productive and led to positive steps. At the first subsequent Feminist Night March meeting, participants discussed the need for stewards to exercise care when asking non-trans men to leave. They stressed that arguments or criticisms about placards like those of previous years should not take place during the march. The inclusion of trans people and trans men was a central topic of the meetings.

This year a group of feminist artists played an active role in producing the march’s visuals. As well as designing the call to the march, they held a stencil-making workshop. For the first time, stencils were made for the march and used on walls in Beyoğlu.

The march began in Galatasaray at 19:30 and continued to Taksim Square. Participants carried purple flags with female symbols, with and without raised fists, made at the preparatory meetings. The number and visibility of LGBTI+ placards increased in 2012, and placards in Laz were also carried. In 2011 and 2012, placards became both a source of debate and increasingly diverse. From then on, the variety of placards and photographs of them became a characteristic feature of the march. More than a thousand people attended.

The press statement addressed family-centred policies and rejected an approach that failed to recognise women as individuals and confined them to the family. It stressed that male violence would continue as long as the heterosexist family structure persisted, and that family policies rejecting equality and reinforcing heterosexism would lead to three women being killed every day and the continuing rise in trans murders.

Direnişin Ritimleri played throughout the march, and Bandsista songs, which would become a tradition at feminist marches, were sung for the first time. Afterwards, a celebration marking thirty years of the feminist movement was held at Taksim Belediye Sarayı, with Ritim Kolektif performing. The event sought to bring different generations of the movement together. Its invitation, entitled ‘March 8 Dinner Certificate’, drew on the ‘Unchaste Woman Certificate’ used in the 1990 ‘No to Article 438’ campaign.

Although there were no disputes on the street during the march, discussion of the placards followed on feminist@yahoogroups.com. The most debated slogan was ‘I am a feminist, I am a prostitute’. The discussions addressed prostitution, sex work and transfeminism, and articles appeared in Amargi. Questioning its own position in the placard debates, İFK held a series of internal meetings on transfeminism in the weeks after the march.

Podcast

Signed by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

The 2011 March 8 Feminist Night March took place at the Feminist Collective’s call. That year, to raise its visibility, the We Revolt Against Femicide campaign announced its supporting groups as constituents of the Istanbul Feminist Collective (İFK): independent feminists and women from Amargi, Filmmor, KADAV, Mor Çatı, the Socialist Feminist Collective, MEDİZ and Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways. They continued as İFK constituents for several years. This did not change the principle of individual participation in organising the Feminist Night March, and organisations’ names were not included in march statements. It did, however, open the way after 2011 to seek support from organisations when setting budgets and making similar arrangements.

Correspondence and proposals concerning the 2011 Feminist Night March circulated on cinayetlereisyandayiz@googlegroups.com, created for the We Revolt Against Femicide campaign, while feminist@yahoogroups.com was used mainly for announcements.

During preparatory meetings, feminists from Lambda and İllet argued that the murders of trans people should be addressed on an equal footing with femicide. Following discussion, ‘Trans murders are political’ was added to the slogan list.

Before the Feminist Night March on March 8 in Istanbul, İFK held a one-hour silent protest outside the courthouse in Kadıköy at 10:00 as part of its We Revolt Against Femicide campaign. The banner read: ‘Every day, women are killed by men close to them. What are you waiting for to stop these massacres?’

Male violence and femicide were central to the night march. A large ‘We Revolt Against Femicide’ banner, unfurled from the Taksim Hill Hotel, was carried horizontally during the march. Placards from the morning action, bearing photographs of murdered women and the question ‘Who is the killer?’, were also carried. Their use prompted debate because the Feminist Night March was a demonstration that combined revolt with celebration. The press statement also focused on male violence, emphasising the inadequate number of shelters and mechanisms to combat violence. It also addressed the harassment at KESK.

The previous year, a group of feminists had continued to Tünel Square after the demonstration. This year the official route was extended to Tünel for the first time. The horizontal Turkish-Kurdish banner ‘Feminist revolt / serhildana feminist’ was hung on the monument in Tünel. As in the previous year, around a thousand people attended. Although the demonstration was organised without representation by organisations and announced as closed to men, anarchists arrived with their own flags and symbols. A group of men followed behind the march.

Afterwards, İFK held a party at Haymatlos, while another took place in Tünel Square as in the previous year. Ritim Kolektif performed at Haymatlos for the first time. The party, announced through an open invitation for the first time, was very crowded. After the Tünel party dispersed past midnight, its participants also came to Haymatlos.

Placards carried by a group from İllet, Feministival and Lambda, including ‘It’s my cunt, I decide who touches it’, ‘Transfeminism is here’ and ‘I like my feminism trans’, sparked a debate during the march that continued and developed afterwards. Some feminists intervened against the placards on the street, and the debate continued on the feminist mailing list. Two meetings after March 8 decided to publish a statement explaining that both the intervention and the way it was made had been wrong. Despite subsequent efforts, the statement was never finalised and remained a draft. One debate concerned whether the Feminist Night March should raise a strong, collective feminist voice rather than foreground different feminisms, such as socialist, radical or trans feminism, and whether this position excluded trans people. Another criticism concerned the way bodies, sexuality and LGBTI politics were overshadowed by the focus on male violence. Finally, participants stressed the need for marches, political language, parties and discussion spaces to be created by different feminisms and movements coming together, talking and organising jointly. They also criticised the lack of contact between the feminist and LGBTI movements and those at their intersections. One question was how, in practice during the demonstration, to uphold the exclusion of non-trans men.

Podcast

Signed by: Feminist Collective

More than 500 women had joined the seventh Feminist Night March in 2009, making it visible as an independent feminist action. Between 2009 and 2010, Amargi, the Socialist Feminist Collective and the Istanbul Feminist Collective were growing stronger. The campaigns ‘Men Owe Us’ and ‘We Revolt Against Femicide’ were continuing. On February 14, 2010, the action ‘Men’s Love Kills Three Women’ took place. At Amargi’s initiative and with the participation of different women’s organisations, the Platform to Combat Sexual Violence was established. In January, feminists called on ‘all those who have experienced or are experiencing womanhood’ to come together to organise a feminist festival, and began meetings for ‘feministival’, planned for April 9–11, 2010. The activities organised around the Feminist Collective, those of the Platform to Combat Sexual Violence and the feministival preparations can be described as having proceeded separately.

Since 2008, feminists had issued open invitations on the ‘feminist’ mailing list to announce a shared venue for the post-march party. In 2010, this was the TMMOB venue. There was also a call for another feminist street party in Tünel Square. Following discussions about the two parties, invitations to both were added to the 2010 Feminist Night March call: the Tünel street party, with the slogans ‘Not with a solitaire, but on our own’ and ‘The streets are ours, we owe no explanation, the spell won’t break after midnight!’, and the party at TMMOB. The SFK Rhythm Group, later known as Ritim Kolektif, performed at TMMOB for the first time in 2010 and went on to play at parties in later years.

The peace and anti-war emphasis of the 2010 press statement reflected the influence of the Women’s Initiative for Peace, established in 2009 with active feminist involvement. While the 2009 statement demanded a ‘democratic political solution to the Kurdish question’, the 2010 statement emphasised an insistence on peace against militarism and nationalism. The political approach of the Women’s Initiative for Peace also shaped subsequent years’ statements.

As in the previous year, close to a thousand people joined the 2010 march. Participants carried flags featuring female symbols, with and without raised fists, painstakingly drawn on purple cloth by Socialist Feminist Collective members. But 2010 marked a turning point in the diversity of participation and in the involvement of feminists from the LGBTI movement. The large turnout from Lambda and Amargi, and the joint announcement of the march and the street party organised by the Feministival team they were part of, made participation more appealing. Lesbian women were visible in the march. For the first time, lesbian flags bearing female symbols in rainbow colours, with and without raised fists, were carried. Placards about same-sex love also appeared for the first time: some were prepared by the organising group and others brought by participants. Minister for Women and Family Affairs Selma Aliye Kavaf was protested for her March 7, 2010 statement that ‘homosexuality is a disease’, and placards bearing her photograph were carried. Direnişin Ritimleri, who also joined the Tünel party, played instruments at the rear of the procession.

The march also included ‘Justice for Pınar Selek’ placards brought by the Hâlâ Tanığız Platform, and placards prepared by the Feminist Collective highlighting femicide. Femicide was also addressed in the statement, which cited official figures released in 2009.

After the march ended in Galatasaray and the statement was read, a group of feminists continued to Tünel with Direnişin Ritimleri and the banner ‘The streets are ours, we owe no explanation, the spell won’t break after midnight!’. Their party continued after midnight. Another group celebrated at TMMOB with the SFK Rhythm Group.

The invitation to the Feminist Night March was a ‘call to women’, while the Feministival invitation began by addressing ‘women who have experienced or are experiencing womanhood’. The subject of feminist struggle was thus expanding. This difference would lead to tensions in subsequent years. Organising and evaluation meetings welcomed the growing and more diverse turnout with enthusiasm, while the increasing number of men attending became a subject of debate for years. In 2010, groups that foregrounded sexual orientation and gender identity in their feminist politics remained somewhat distant from the organising process, yet helped open up the march’s relatively rigid structure. They also signalled that debates about the march’s substance, its agenda, placards and slogans, would continue.

The 2010 march marked a year in which the feminist collective’s boundaries widened in terms of diversity and inclusion. The march now brought together a more varied and exuberant crowd.

Signed by: Feminist Collective

After 2007, the feminist movement began to grow both on the streets and in its capacity to organise. Alongside the forums held since March 2007, the ‘feminist’ mailing list was actively used as a space for discussion and organising actions.

The year 2009 was a lively one for feminism. The Socialist Feminist Collective (SFK), which drew its founding energy from the Feminist Collective, began its activities in November 2008. The Feminist Collective for the Elections was established in February 2009 and nominated feminist and Mor Çatı volunteer Ülfet Taylı for mayor of Beyoğlu in the March 29 local elections. Feminists active in the election campaign also helped organise the Feminist Night March.

At the organising meeting, participants agreed that there was no problem with the Feminist Collective for the Elections campaign and the March 8 Feminist Night March overlapping. They decided that, alongside the elections, the statement should address conservatism, capitalism, patriarchy and the policies of war directed at the Kurdish people.

The founding of SFK, whose organising centred on street action, strengthened the 2009 march. Organising meetings took place in the Socialist Feminist Collective’s space, later known as Feminist Mekan. This space has been used to organise the Feminist Night March ever since.

Participation in the seventh Feminist Night March exceeded 500 for the first time in 2009, despite the late Sunday-evening timing, the number of feminists who had marched at the front of the daytime rally, and the exhaustion following it. The banner ‘Feminist struggle against patriarchy, capitalism, militarism and nationalism’, carried in 2007 and 2008 and at the daytime rally, was used again. Participants marched with handmade flags and placards also used during the day. The turnout was not particularly diverse, and fewer placards were carried than in later years. Flags featured female symbols, with and without raised fists, painstakingly drawn on purple cloth by Socialist Feminist Collective members.

Okunan basın açıklamasında eylemin yeri de olan Beyoğlu’nun feminist adayını desteklemeye çağrı yapıldı. İstanbul seçimleri için sadece Beyoğlu feminist adayı desteklenirken, metinde Demokratik Özgür Kadın Hareketi'nin, Kürt illerinde seçilebilecek yerlerden çıkardığı 15 kadın belediye başkan adayı, erkek egemenliğine karşı mücadelenin sesi olarak işaret edildi ve Kürt sorununa demokratik siyasal çözüm talebi yer aldı. Heteroseksizme ise değinilmedi.

At the end of the march, participants celebrated with songs such as Burçak Tarlası, Keçe Kurdan and Hür Doğdum Hür Yaşarım. SFK organised that year’s party at the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers and invited the Feminist Collective.

Signed by: Istanbul Feminist Collective

Feminists entered 2008 better organised. Fourteen feminist gatherings took place between 2007 and 2008. These gatherings expanded the feminist@yahoogroups.com mailing list to more than a hundred members. The forums discussed current feminist politics, and those discussions informed demonstrations, events and campaigns. They decided to publish a pamphlet entitled ‘Shout so everyone can hear: let male violence end’ for the twentieth anniversary of the March Against Battering, hold a press statement in Yoğurtçu Park on May 13, and organise a women’s festival on May 20. Actions were organised through discussions on the ‘feminist’ mailing list as well as face-to-face meetings. Accepting earlier criticism that signing as ‘feminists’ was inappropriate, the group began using the name ‘Feminist Collective’ for the twentieth-anniversary events. Accordingly, the invitation to the organising meeting for the 2008 March 8 Feminist Night March was issued by the Feminist Collective following discussions on the mailing list. The collective sometimes also issued calls as the Istanbul Feminist Collective. Indeed, this was the name used to sign the 2008 march’s press statement.

In 2007–2008, discussions on the mailing list led feminists to follow the court cases concerning Sevim Zarif, murdered on July 22, 2007, and Ayşe Yılbaş, murdered on February 22, 2008. By March 8, 2008, they had entirely abandoned the concept of ‘honour killings’ in favour of ‘femicide’. Challenging sentence reductions for ‘unjust provocation’ that favoured male perpetrators became a priority in feminist court solidarity. Between March 8, 2007 and March 8, 2008, activities and campaigns in Istanbul foregrounded a feminism that understood male domination as a comprehensive political problem and sought to constitute women as a collective political subject confronting it. It was also a year in which feminists on the mailing list influenced the women’s movement’s agenda. The Women’s Solidarity Campaign with the Novamed Strike and the Women’s Platform for Social Rights were established at feminists’ initiative.

As March 8, 2008 approached, two campaigns were continuing alongside the femicide trials being followed. The first was the feminist campaign ‘Our Bodies Are Our Own: Purple Needle Against Harassment’ (January–March 2008). The second, ‘We Fundamentally Oppose the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Bill (SSGSS)’, was run by the Women’s Platform for Social Rights, established at feminists’ initiative.

With this busy agenda, the 2008 March 8 events were organised to last a week. The opening event took place in Kadıköy on March 1, 2008, and a feminist newspaper was also published. The Feminist Night March was one stop in an intensive nine-day programme of events and actions. As in previous years, the march had no budget of its own. Small expenses were covered by pooled contributions from the independent feminists attending the meetings.

The 2008 March 8 Night March used the previous year’s banner and the flags feminists had made for the twentieth anniversary of the March Against Battering. Placards came from the March 7 press statement at Sultanahmet Courthouse, held under the slogan ‘We intervene in crimes against women’, and from the Purple Needle campaign action that evening.

Shortly before March 8, 2008, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told women to ‘have children’. In response, anti-militarist feminists devised the chant ‘Listen, prime minister, don’t make us lose our temper! Go brood over your own eggs, to hatch one little Turk, two little Turks, three little Turks...’. It was first chanted at the 2008 March 8 Feminist Night March.

A group of anti-militarist feminists calling themselves ‘Safdışı’ joined the March 8 Feminist Night March with their own slogans, placards and musical instruments. This prompted a discussion about the march’s shared conventions: could participants bring their own placards, even unsigned ones, in addition to those prepared collectively? Opinions differed. Most of the organising group felt that placards not prepared together should not be brought. The group also agreed that participants should not bring separate banners.

Around 300 women attended the march, including Sebahat Tuncel, a member of parliament who identified as a feminist. Until 2008, the post-march party at Teras Bar on Sadri Alışık Street had been organised by word of mouth. In 2008 it was announced to women’s groups by email for the first time.

Signed by: Feminists

As March 8, 2007 approached, feminists in Istanbul decided to hold regular forums to strengthen feminist political expression. The first would address 'Our feminist struggle in the 2000s'. Preparatory meetings were held regularly, and these also discussed issuing the call for the Feminist Night March.

At the first forum on March 3, participants discussed ways of practising politics outside the system: against both patriarchy and capitalism, and independent of men, capital and the state. The theme of the Feminist Night March emerged from these discussions. When the 2006 banner, 'Feminist struggle against patriarchy', could not be found, a new one was planned. It would emphasise the struggle against capitalism, militarism and nationalism alongside the struggle against patriarchy.

The press statement developed the banner's message. It addressed the patriarchal and capitalist exploitation of women's paid and unpaid labour, discrimination and hatred directed at lesbians and trans people, male violence and femicide. It declared 'Our bodies belong to us', expressed solidarity with Armenian and Kurdish women, opposed war and emphasised solidarity among peoples and feminist revolt.

Between two hundred and two hundred and fifty women joined a very enthusiastic march. Afterwards, the press statement was read in Kurdish and Turkish, halay dances were performed in Galatasaray Square, and songs were sung in Turkish and Kurdish. A small number of placards were carried alongside the main banner. The fifth Feminist Night March took place under the signature 'feminists'.

As in previous years, the women gathered to celebrate together after the march. In 2007, the venue was Şiirci.

At the March 8 daytime rally in Çağlayan that year, feminist women marched together as an organised group behind a 'feminists' banner at the front of the rally for the first time.

Signed by: Feminists

The women who organised the March 8 Feminist Night March in 2005 held many demonstrations and meetings before the following March 8 to strengthen their organising. Their actions and calls used the signature 'feminists'. At this group's call, women marched behind a 'feminists' banner at the May Day rally in Kadıköy in 2005. On October 2 they organised a silent protest against militarism and nationalism. On November 25 they again called a march in Kadıköy, under the slogan 'A World Without Violence Is Possible'. On November 11, 2005, the group set up feminist@yahoogroups.com to communicate with one another. All its members were independent feminist women. This group, numbering ten to twelve women, issued the call for the 2006 March 8 Feminist Night March.

Two preparatory meetings were held for the 2006 Feminist Night March. The invitation to women was finalised in the feminists' email group. This year, it was decided to put 'patriarchy', the name of the system of male domination, on the banner. In 'Feminist struggle against patriarchy', the letters spelling 'feminist' were cut from pieces of fabric and sewn onto the banner.

The 2006 march was more enthusiastic than those of previous years. Around two hundred women participated. As in 2005, the press statement made a broad political statement about patriarchy and feminism. It emphasised the multiple forms of oppression within the patriarchal system and the rejection of relations of oppression, exploitation and power. It used the phrase 'feminist revolt'. As in 2005, it spoke of feminism outside the system and the struggle against patriarchy and capitalism.

The call asked participants not to bring placards other than those prepared together. However, alongside the organisers' placards reading 'We refuse to obey the male order' and 'Men, the state and capital burn us! Solidarity…', some women carried unsigned round placards prepared by Gökkuşağı Women's Association for the March 8 daytime rally, reading 'Jin, jiyan, azadî' and 'No to isolation, military operations and war'.

Participation remained far less diverse than the range of organised feminist women in Istanbul. Few women outside the organising circle had heard the call and joined. Indeed, apart from a handful of websites and occasionally an opposition newspaper, the marches in their first three years had barely received any news coverage.

Signed by: Feminists (without a signature beneath the statement)

A group of feminists called the 2005 march. Some had played an active role in organising the 2003 and 2004 marches. Meeting regularly from late 2004 and early 2005, they saw a need to create ways for feminist groups and individual feminists in Istanbul to act together, and attached importance to taking to the streets. They embraced a comprehensive feminist politics against patriarchy. Feminists' demands and messages had little space in the March 8 daytime rallies. At the same time, almost every part of the women's movement had adopted many feminist approaches and ideas, especially the language of male domination. The ideological and political distinctions between feminist and non-feminist women had become blurred. The forms of action favoured by the women's movement, and men's enthusiasm for attending March 8 rallies, also meant that many feminist women stayed away even though they wanted to be on the streets on March 8.

Inspired by the 2003 and 2004 marches, a group of independent feminists took steps to establish them as a tradition. Naming the event the 'Feminist Night March', they issued an open invitation to women's groups to meet and organise it. The call went to kadinkurultayi@yahoogroups.com, then the email group with the largest number of women members, bringing together independent women and women from different groups. Feminist women's groups were also invited individually. Although Gökkuşağı Women's Association, founded in 2003, did not define itself as a feminist organisation, the convenors considered Kurdish women's participation important and contacted its members specifically. Women from Amargi, Lambda and Gökkuşağı Women's Association attended, alongside women participating as individual feminists.

The meeting agreed that the march's statement could address issues on the national agenda, but that the main banner should name feminism and emphasise patriarchy. Because 'patriarchy' was thought not to be sufficiently familiar, 'male order' was chosen instead. The press statement and slogans also emphasised a struggle outside the system against capitalism, heterosexism, nationalism and militarism. The statement opposed what it referred to at the time as 'prostitution', which capitalism had turned into an industry. As in 2003 and 2004, the march was organised around individual feminist participation, without organisational identities, and placards prepared together. In 2005, lesbian women joined the daytime rally with their own banner and slogans for the first time. It was agreed that this visibility should also be present at the night march. A placard reading 'Lesbian women exist' was carried, and the same words were chanted.

Almost a hundred people joined the march. The press statement was read in Turkish and Kurdish. The event now had a name, the 'March 8 Feminist Night March', and its establishment as a tradition was announced.

Meanwhile, March 8 in Istanbul was marked by division in 2005: three rallies were held over the same weekend. Feminists joined the rally in Kadıköy on Saturday, March 5, organised by a platform convened at the call of Mor Çatı, Amargi and Gökkuşağı Women's Association.

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Signed by: Feminist women

On March 1, 2004, Güldünya Tören was murdered by her brothers following a family decision, because she had become pregnant after being raped by a relative. Exchanges on the kadinkurultayi@yahoogroups.com email group led to a decision to take action. Following a meeting convened through an open call, a demonstration was held at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery on March 6 under the name 'feminist women', with a banner reading 'Shelters, not graves'. The feminist women who organised the March 6 demonstration decided to call another action for March 8, highlighting the different dimensions of violence against women.

More than a hundred women attended, carrying numerous placards against male violence. The press statement was read in Mis Street. Among the participants in the Feminist Night March was Cynthia Cockburn, who was in Turkey that year.

Holding the demonstration under the name 'feminist women' and organising a Feminist Night March on March 8 for the second time made its continuation in subsequent years more likely. As in 2003, the guiding principles were to convene meetings through an open call to women's groups, to base participation on individuals rather than groups, and to carry placards prepared together by women without organisational signatures.

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Signed by: Women Meeting at the Peace Point

In 2003, women from the Mor Çatı Women's Shelter Foundation and the Women's Solidarity Foundation (KADAV) proposed a march from Taksim Square to Mis Street on March 8.

At the time, anti-war demonstrations were taking place across Turkey and around the world. Following the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the US administration had decided to attack Iraq, claiming that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction that threatened US security. Opponents of the war argued that this attack would amount to an occupation. One of their actions in Turkey was 'One Minute of Darkness for Peace', launched at the Peace Initiative's call on February 15 and held every day at 8 pm. People took part both from their homes and by gathering in squares to raise their voices against war. Mis Street in Beyoğlu was one of these gathering places.

War was central to March 8, 2003. A group of women from Mor Çatı and KADAV called a meeting on March 5 to organise the lights-out protest in Mis Street on March 8 as women. The invitation, sent to the kadinkurultayi@yahoogroups.com email group, also proposed marching from Taksim to Mis Street beforehand. Most participants were independent feminists, but some were women working on women's politics within mixed-gender groups. Whatever their affiliations, each woman represented only herself at the meeting. They agreed that the demonstration should highlight the patriarchal character of war and women's opposition to it. Placards prepared together at the organising meetings would be carried from Taksim to Mis Street, without the signatures of any organisation or platform. Participants also decided to carry photographs of Hitler, Mussolini, Sharon, Milošević, Bush and Saddam bearing the slogan 'It is no coincidence: they are all men'. A photograph of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with a moustache was included to show that women, too, could commit war crimes. The meeting also agreed to continue anti-war actions after March 8.

Around a hundred people took part in an enthusiastic demonstration. 'Kadınlar Vardır' [Women Exist] was sung together many times. Alongside photographs of heads of state bearing the words 'It is no coincidence: they are all men', participants carried other anti-war placards. As in the 'One Minute of Darkness for Peace' actions held since February 15, candles were carried during the march. Afterwards, the press statement was read, and at 8 pm participants made noise with whistles, drums and other instruments. The demonstration did not use the signature 'feminists'; no banner was carried, feminism was not named in the placards or slogans, and the event ended by joining the anti-war protesters' daily 'One Minute of Darkness for Peace' action. Nevertheless, it was organised by feminists, and its message and principles were entirely feminist. This mattered both because it showed that feminists could hold a separate street demonstration on March 8 and because it inspired feminists in the years that followed.

After the March 8 night march, participants met to continue their anti-war actions. Under the name 'Women Meeting at the Peace Point', they decided to begin a silent sit-in on March 31, 2003, beside the İstiklal Avenue exit of Taksim metro station. It would be based on individual participation, with one banner, feminist symbols and candles, and no organisational names or symbols. The action, with the message 'End the occupation and the attack; they are all men, is that a coincidence? - Women's Peace Point', was repeated in the same place for five consecutive days from March 31 and then continued every Saturday as 'Women Meeting at the Peace Point'. The women also joined the April 6 rally in Çağlayan against the occupation of Iraq, carrying the placards and banners they had used on March 8.

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