Women in the province of Mardin have joined the "Em xwe diparêzin" (We defend ourselves) campaign. The four-month action was initiated by the Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad, TJA) and is directed against sexual assaults, violence and any form of oppression policy against women. All local TJA associations will participate in the campaign nationwide while the TJA groups in Hakkari, Batman, Istanbul and Izmir have already started their actions within the campaign.

"We will not miss any opportunity to fight the patriarchal mentality for which violence against women is perfectly normal," said TJA activist Eylem Amak on Sunday when announcing their participation in the campaign in front of the HDP Mardin headquarters. HDP deputies Ebru Günay and Pero Dündar also took part in the demonstration. Other participants carried signs bearing slogans such as "Jin, Jîyan, Azadî" (Women, Life, Freedom), "Femicide is political" and "Rape is a crime”.

In a speech, Eylem Amak pointed out the increase in patriarchal violence in Mardin and all other regions of the country. She continued: "Despite the attacks, we do not withdraw from our combat zones, but continue to defend our rights. The rate of femicide in Northern Kurdistan and Turkey has increased by 63 percent since 2015, according to the ‘We Will Stop Femicide Platform’. In August alone 27 women were murdered by men, 23 other women were found dead in a suspicious way. Because Law 6284 and the Istanbul Convention are not effectively implemented, not only is femicide increasing in frequency nationwide, but brutality is also on the rise as patriarchal notions of female subordination supplant emancipatory views.

Eylem Amak therefore made it clear that the TJA campaign also includes the defense of the Istanbul Convention. She stressed that: "We are equally committed to fighting against the government's proposed law, which would allow rapists who marry their underage victims to remain unpunished. That's enough! We take this path to resist the militaristic, racist and sexist mentality of the AKP/MHP regime and its collaborators and to defend our ideology based on women's liberation. We will not give in to oppression, but we resist for a free and equal life.”

RELATED NEWS: