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EUROPE>Turkey
Europe | Turkey | Activism

International Women’s Day Rally in Turkey Turns Violent

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Turkish police on Sunday briefly detained at least one woman and fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of hundreds of people trying to mark International Women's Day in central Istanbul. The group, which gathered two days before official Women's Day commemorations on March 8 in order to draw more supporters on a Sunday, had ignored a ban on the march by the Istanbul governor who scrapped this year's rally, citing security concerns. They were seeking to draw attention to women's issues in Turkey, which ranks 77th out of 138 countries on a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ind
Europe | Turkey | Politics

Turkish campaigners dismayed at sharp fall in women MPs

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Turkey's parliament lost more than a fifth of its female deputies in Sunday's election, fuelling activists' concerns about women's rights as President Tayyip Erdogan strengthens his grip on power. Women's groups and opposition politicians have criticized Erdogan, a devout Muslim, for condemning abortion, calling birth control "treason", and telling women they should have at least three children. His AK Party won just under 50 percent of the vote, far exceeding the expectations even of party insiders and giving it a clear majority of around 317 seats in the 550-seat parliament. But uno
Europe | Turkey | Activism

Pedal power gets Turkish makeover

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The Chic Women’s Bicycle Tour kicked off Sept. 20 in 10 Turkish cities. The call for participants, made through various social media outlets, stated, “This women’s activity is organized by women for women.” The cycling activists calling themselves Suslu Kadinlar (Chic Women) described the event as “independent, commercial free, without politicians and free for all.” They invited everyone to join. The bicycle tour was held for the third time in conjunction with the annual Car Free Cities Day, an initiative organized as part of the European Union’s “Mobility Week” a
Europe | Turkey | Leadership

Turkish deputy prime minister shouts at lawmaker: ‘You as a woman, be quiet!’

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Turkey’s deputy prime minister on Wednesday ignited a new row over discrimination against women in Turkish politics when he told a female deputy who tried to interrupt his speech to “as a woman, be quiet!”. Deputy premier Bulent Arinc made the remark while speaking during an emergency debate in parliament over the government’s military intervention against jihadists in Syria and Kurdish militants in Iraq. Justifying the decision to attack Kurdish militants in Iraq, his comments were loudly mocked by members of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), including f
Europe | Turkey | Society

Y&R Wins Media Grand Prix for App That Lets Women Call for Help by Shaking Their Phones

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Another female-empowerment campaign has triumphed at Cannes, with the Media Grand Prix going to a fascinating Vodafone app from Y&R Istanbul that lets women in Turkey call for help simply by shaking their phones. Instructions of how to find the app were embedded in videos specifically targeting women—a gender-specific approach designed so that men never get the message. More than 250,000 women have downloaded the app, Y&R says, or about 24 percent of all women in Turkey who use smartphones. It has been activated over 103,000 times.  
Europe | Turkey | Activism

Turkey elections mark the start of a revolution for women

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“This victory is the common victory of all women of Turkey, ” Selahattin Demirtaş, co-president of the Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), said in a television address to millions of citizens awaiting the outcome of the national elections on 7 June. As a young feminist, I was pleasantly surprised when the election results delivered a blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s growing authoritarianism. It’s important to be aware of the weight of Demirtaş’s words. In an environment where politicians rarely recognise women in the public sphere other than as someone’s mother, wif
Europe | Turkey | Politics

More Turkish female MPs enter parliament than ever before

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Turkey's 25th parliamentary election Sunday may have produced no majority government, but the parliament is already in the books with the highest number of women deputies in Turkish history. With over 99.9 of the votes counted, the unofficial results show that a total of 96 women parliamentarians secured seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The figure marks a notable rise against the background of the 2011 parliamentary election, when the Grand Assembly saw 79 women delegates. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which passed the 10 percent threshold with 13.
Europe | Turkey | Activism

Turkish Women Are Posting Photos Of Their Backs To Protest President Erdogan

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Turkish women are posting photos of their backs to protest against their president, using the hashtag #SırtımızıDönüyoruz, which means “we’re turning our backs.” The photos are a response to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan insulting a group of women for turning their backs to him as his campaign bus drove past them on June 1, an English-language Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News reported. His remarks were widely understood in Turkey as a lewd joke implying that a woman turning around was an invitation to sex, Haldun Solmazturk, a Turkey expert for the London-based think tank
Europe | Turkey | Culture

Gender inequality remains high in Turkey, according to study

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A recent study conducted by academics from the Gender and Women's Studies Research Center at Kadir Has University has reported that 71.2 percent of participants believe there is no gender equality in Turkey. The study, titled "Social Gender and Women Perception in Turkey", was conducted in April 2015 in 26 cities with 1,000 participants, 50.3 percent female and 49.7 percent males. Although 66.9 percent of all participants state that women and men are not provided with equal opportunities in their job search and 81 percent state that equal salary for the same job is necessary, 42.7 percen
Europe | Turkey | Politics

Turkey aims to ‘make women more visible in politics’

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Meryem Goka, vice chair of Turkey’s incumbent AK Party women branch, says she wants women to be more effectively represented in the June elections in Turkey. Turkey aims to raise standards of women and make them more visible in politics, a leader of the ruling Justice and Development or AK Party's women branch said in Brussels on Wednesday. Meryem Goka, vice chair of Turkey’s incumbent AK Party women branch, which has more than four million members, was one of the women rights experts gathered at the European Parliament to discuss the political participation and rights of women in E
Europe | Turkey | Sports

Outraged over loss, hockey coach buries players in sand

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The Turkish U-16 women’s hockey team was destroyed in the first match of the championship that was held in Alanya, a beach resort in Turkey, losing by 15-0. Their coach, Savas Yilmaz, utterly disappointed with the result, decided to punish the players in a unique way. He half-buried three of the players in sand and walked around them, threatening them with his dog, and terrifying the girls.
Europe | Turkey | Culture

Turkish actress disowned for running on Kurdish Party’s ticket

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Relatives of Selda Karafazli, an actress from the Rize Province, a province of northeast Turkey on the eastern Black Sea, called a press conference to disown her after she announced her candidacy for the upcoming parliamentary elections in June. She is on the ballot under the People’s Democratic Party, a left-wing party acting as the fraternal party to the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party. The Rize province in Turkey is known for its residents’ extreme nationalist views. The fact that Karafazli is running for parliament as part of a party that aims to protect the rights of minorit
Europe | Turkey | Sports

Eczacıbaşı VitrA crowned champions of European women’s volleyball

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Turkish women’s volleyball club Eczacıbaşı VitrA has been crowned the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League winner in Poland after beating Italy’s Unendo Yamamay in three straight sets in the final. Skipping past another Turkish club, VakıfBank, 3-1 in the semifinal, the women of Eczacıbaşı VitrA won the title after beating the Italian team 25-22, 25-20, 25-21 on April 5.
Europe | Turkey | Politics

Profile: Turkish MP overcomes tragedy

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How does one turn pain and injustice into hope while facing all the beauty and ugliness of the world? How does a beautiful woman emerge as an active world citizen and teach lessons of humanity after losing a third of her body? It takes inherent humane tenderness, benevolence, willpower, courage and, most of all, zest for life. Turkish parliament member Safak Pavey was a 19-year-old student of arts and cinema in Switzerland when she lost a leg and an arm in a train accident while seeing off a friend diagnosed with a brain tumor. The suffering made Pavey stronger. Instead of giving up on li

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