I’m born free! But will I live free?
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In Turkey on November 9, 2010, in the scope of the 2nd international CSBR “One Day, One Struggle” campaign, panels and workshops were organized in 9 cities and 11 spots across the country, in Istanbul (Taksim, Umraniye and Gazi neighborhood), Van, Diyarbakir, Canakkale, Mugla, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, Hatay), all carrying the message forward “Sexual Rights are Human Rights”!
Hundreds of members and representatives of the women’s and LGBT movements, as well as women’s groups of community centers and some municipality units shared today our common struggle against all forms of violations of sexual, reproductive and bodily rights and freedoms and underlined the message that these rights and freedoms relates to EVERBODY, women, girls, boys AND men.
As part of the campaign, Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways organized an event composed of a film screening and a panel entitled “I’m born free! But will I live free? Our Bodies, Our Sexualities, Our Struggle Against Violence” focusing on the violation of sexual and bodily rights, the murder of women and girls, hate crimes against LGBTT people and the way these crimes are covered in the mainstream media very often in an almost legitimizing way. (“I’m born free! But will I live free?” is taken from the lyrics of a popular Turkish song.)
Our action started with the opening of an exhibition of posters and a PowerPoint documentary composed of a list of 349 people who were victims of sexual violence and / or have been killed between November 2009 – November 2010 in the so-called name of honor and misconstruction of morality (this PowerPoint documentary has been screened at all 9 city events in Turkey). While the documentary was being screened, people wrote their ideas /suggestions on sexual rights on a roll-on paper and what can / should be done do to stop the violence against women, girls and LGBTT people.
At the opening of the panel a press statement on sexual and bodily rights under the slogan of “I am born, but will I live free” was given where we emphasized the international character of the CSBR “One Day, One Struggle” campaign and the importance of coalition building across the globe to promote our rights and freedom.
Following the press statement, there was the screening of the short film Pure Evil, followed by a lively panel discussion mainly focusing on sexual and bodily rights within the framework of the right to live. Pure Evil tells the last 5 minutes of 16-year-old Medine Memi who was buried alive and killed by her father and grandfather because she was talking to boys. Nuray Onuk, the director of the documentary film, gave more information on the film and the reasons why they made it. Many stressed during the discussion the importance of such documentaries as it gives the victims their voices back.
Just after this discussion, the panel, titled “Our Bodies, Sexualities and Struggle against Violence” began. Funda Ekin, one of the speakers, gave a presentation on women killings and the campaign that is conducted by the Women’s Platform Against Women Killings. She also mentioned the recent protest against the Prime Minister at a meeting for his statements that women and men are not equal, and she underscored the role of the state and state officials who do not take any precautions and put women into a secondary position.
The second speaker, Sevval Kilic from Women’s Gate and Istanbul LGBTT, made a presentation on hate crimes and the hate culture in relation to the right to live as a basic human right. She emphasized the importance of having a counter-ideology against this hate culture to stop the crimes and killings. Police violence against trans people and sex workers was another main point of her presentation which opened up lively debates where several participants shared their experiences related to police violence. She ended her analysis emphasizing the need to introduce hate crimes in the Turkish penal code.
Emine Ozcan, who has documented sexual violence incidents over a one-year period, first gave some information on how and why she prepared the inventory of incidents of violence and gave an analysis of news coverage of the violence cases and how these were legitimized by the mainstream patriarchal discourse. Her intervention was crucial for revealing the systematic violence that is normalized in daily newspapers and the reproduction of violence through the sexist language of the media.
The last speaker, Yasemin Oz made a presentation linking all the previous interventions to the broader perspective of sexual and bodily rights. She also focused on the sexist regulations in the Turkish penal code, the article on “shameful and immoral” actions which welcomes arbitrary implementations of the law.
Almost 80 people from various backgrounds, including LGBTT and women’s rights activists, academics, students and concerned citizens, attended the panel and the very lively debates opened up new spaces for discussions and further strategies that can be implemented in the future for the collective struggle against sexual and bodily rights violations.
- Contributed by Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways (WWHR-New Ways)
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