Feride
“I'm not used to telling my perceptive of feminism so let me explain the background;
It criticizes the whole system, it does not establish the struggle as women's empowerment only.
It is an issue of capitalism, heterosexism in connection with patriarchy, it has a purpose of understanding, analyzing and destroying the power relations which are set up in every aspect of life. My understanding of feminism strives for the transformation of power relations as a whole, it links to racism and war, to domestic violence, to discrimination in the workplace etc. Empowering women on an individual basis is very important but feminism that focuses only on this is not sufficient for me. I am not saying that I am against it, mainstream feminism is more acceptable, it may be an achievement but it has pros and cons. Taking a part in the power systems to make it a better place for women is not meant for me, my recipe is transforming those systems entirely.”
İrem
"Even a woman who does not know anything about feminism fights for her own life. Women are fighting for their right to work, for their right to live, for their right of education, for their right to divorce. It is not enough to damn the murderers, We all live face to face with violence, we all struggle, but fighting only for our own lives is not enough anymore, all women have to fight for each other. Those women are out there on streets fighting for me and they are detained. Then I said 'why am I not there fighting for them?' and I joined the movement."
Evrim
“The system backs the perpetrator. We prepare our petitions by feminist legal terminology. The petitions include the Istanbul Convention, the rights of women, saying, ‘you have to continue the trial as follows...’ for ex; the murderer being the ex-partner is a consideration to aggravated life imprisonment.
When we can’t make the right concluded penalty I don't see it as the failure of the lawyers, all is due to failed practice of law”
Hilal
"Safiye Karakaş was killed in Izmir with the motive of tradition, we were party to her case. In court one of the witness' wanted to use a sentence like; 'if I knew that the man had a relationship with a married woman, I would not let him work for me'
The judge silenced her saying “How would you dare to speak about someone else's honour, you mind your own honour” It was surprising, we are not used to this, then we thought that there is only one reason for this, she reacted in such way because we were there... So if we carry on with our struggle, if our struggle becomes visible, those who justify femicide over honor and the lifestyle of women will be silenced one by one, I saw this in a concrete way in this court. A woman died and there was nobody to claim but us. We were there. We didn't let them talk behind her back, our struggle didn't allow it. They wanted to bury Safiye in the cemetery of nameless, women prevented that. They carried her on their shoulders and built her a grave.
Güneş
"Women's rights like law 6284 did not appear out of nowhere, our rights were written in the blood of every single woman who are murdered. We all remember the face of Ayse Pasali, a divorced woman goes to the courthouse saying she is subjected to violence by her ex-husband and it is said that there is no marital bond between them, so the law can't protect her. Days later ex husband stabs her to death. 10 years ago It was like that in Turkey. When Münevver Karabulut was murdered in 2009, officials told to her family that they should have taken care of their daughter, if you leave her alone, she flees to either the drummer or the trumpet player. From there to here, we signed the Istanbul Convention, we have included 6284 in our internal constitution. These are the rights women earned, clawing their way up, women have fighten for these rights for many years"
Betül
"It is the same everywhere, in the courtroom, in media... the majority of the cases are the same; the woman complained, demanded protection, nobody cared, she is murdered. The man tells that he was deceived, his psychology was upside down, he became enraged... all this is like a formula; all use the same sentences, then matter of extenuation and acquitment. If the law was enforced, we would not be talking about these here. The law will keep me alive, I can only trust it. No offences but nobody can take it from me, they shouldn't take it away. I loose my faith when there are undesirable judgments taken in courts.
I feel like we are drawing a blank but I am also aware that if we stop resisting they will come for us, the day we step back things will go from bad to worse. As women, we always have to resist. I know that. This is what keeps me alive, this is why I stand tall in this struggle. We are talking about femicide right now. I think about a house on fire, we need to put this fire out. Instead we are planning to built new houses, that is fine but there is a house on fire and it will spread to other houses if we don't do anything."