While violence and massacres against women in Turkey are increasing with each passing day, the government fuels violence with policies targeting women and their achievements. Women's objection and rebellion against male-state violence is growing. 

 

Lawyer Berfin Gökkan, a member of Yaşamevi Women's Solidarity Association in Riha (Urfa), stated that women's gains in Turkey are the result of women's knowledge, experience and know-how and said, "Women's intellectual knowledge, historical experiences and struggles have brought great gains." 

 

Berfin Gökkan pointed to the common struggle of the Turkish feminist women's movement and the Kurdish women's movement: "Women's movements came together and organised very quickly in economic, social and political terms. Seeing this, the government started to target women and their rights."

 

Berfin Gökkan said that the government has developed policies against women year after year: "Many policies have been developed to prevent the struggle. The government targeted women's gains on the one hand and women's organised struggle on the other. In parallel to this, massacres of women increased." 

 

“Women who oppose these policies are targeted by the judiciary Many people have been detained, unjustly arrested and punished for peaceful protests," she said. 

 

WOMEN SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE PROCESS

 

Berfin Gökkan stated that the government focuses on keeping women at home and emphasised that the discussions on "family year", targeting abortion and encouraging young people to get married are not independent from this policy. 

 

Pointing to the process being carried out in the context of the democratic solution of the Kurdish question, Berfin Gökkan called for women to be involved in the process and added: "Women should definitely play a role in this process. Women should be in a place that feeds the process and produces ideas. They should be organised in every field".