As every year, the women will take to the streets on March 8. However, the schedules of the activities vary in different parts of Turkey. The women of Istanbul will gather in front of the Beşiktaş pier in Kadıköy on March 5, at 6:00 p.m. The March 8 Women’s Platform summons women to the streets this year with the slogan “We will win our freedom.” Women will take to the streets to condemn trustee appointments and misogynistic and LGBTI + policies of the government. They will also raise concerns about hunger strikes in Turkey’s prisons and promote the Istanbul Convention and women’s solidarity against the male mindset, including the palace regime of Erdoğan and ISIS.
“We will be in Kadikoy”
Speaking to the ANF on behalf of the March 8 Women’s Platform, Sevgi Özlem Gülmez says that they are calling all women who have become impoverished or have been fired with Code 29 due to the epidemic and the economic crisis. “With the pandemic, the entire burden falls on women in the household. On the one hand, high performance is expected in a remote work system, on the other, women have to take care of domestic work. But men are not supposed to do that because housework is seen as something for women to do. This year, we appeal to women oppressed by domestic work. On March 5 we will be in Kadıköy ».
A lot of lost work
Sevgi Özlem Gülmez, cook in the service sector, said: “My place of work has also been closed since November and I have been trying for months to live with the short-time work allowance. Now all places are closed for you to find a job and cooking is not a profession that you can do in another job. There are too many female employees in the service sector. There are also students and part-time employees, especially in the food industry. As they are not registered, they cannot receive any subsidy ”.
Women’s Struggle Raises Awareness
Gülmez added: “If many women are aware of the Istanbul Convention and 6284, it is thanks to the organized struggle of women. Women fight where they are oppressed. As an employee in the service sector, I defend my rights, which I have been deprived of with the pandemic. Kurdish women support hunger strikes against isolation in Turkish prisons. Exploited women at work seek their rights. We rise up against the government and sexist violence as a whole. These struggles are in a common space and now we take to the streets promoting these demands. Against all the government repression, we are waiting for women to say ‘We will win our freedom.’
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