WMW gathers up in Mersin
MERSİN (DİHA) - The World March of Women moved through Antakya with a major rally and Mersin, where they honored women's resistance. The march's next stop will be Muğla, where women will add their voices to local women's struggle against environmental exploitation.
The women of Antakya joined the hundreds of guests bearing signs with the Kurdish slogan "jin, jîyan, azadî" (woman, life, freedom) in five languages. Hatice Can, of Antakya Women's Solidarity, said, "We are amplifying our rebellion and taking control of our lives so that no more Özgecans are killed," referring to the 20-year-old university student raped and burned to death in Mersin province. The march was filled with multilingual slogans and ended with traditional dancing.
Yesterday women traveled to Mersin, where they visited the graves of important figures for the women's movement in Turkey and Kurdistan: Leyla Şaylemez, one of the three Kurdish women activists assassinated in Paris in 2013, and Özgecan Aslan, the university student raped, burned to death and discarded by three men one night as she took the bus home from campus. The women held a moment of silence at the graves.
"There have been martyrs in this struggle. Each one of them takes a piece of us with them. In the struggle for rights, there is a price that must be paid," said Cumali Şaylemez, Leyla's father, speaking at the cemetery. Next, the group traveled to another cemetery to visit the grave of ÖzgecanAslan. Özgecan, who resisted until her last breath, has become a symbol of rebellion for women in Turkey, explained Yıldız Temur Türkan, of the March's Turkey coordination.
The women visited the family of Yasemin Çakar, killed by her husband recently in Gaziantep, in the tent where they were receiving condolences. Next, they visited a photography exhibition about women in theater at the HadraHamam.
Women next headed out for Alanya. They will be in Muğla on the 14th of the month and in Izmir on the 15thto protest the exploitation of nature.
(cm/nt)
