Europe | Turkey | Society

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

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

Source: theguardian

“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 | Culture

Gender inequality remains high in Turkey, according to study

Source: Daily Sabah

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

Profile: Turkish MP overcomes tragedy

Source: Al Monitor

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

Europe | Turkey | Culture

Turkey defines ‘available’ as a ‘woman ready to flirt’

Source: Pangea Today

The Turkish Language Association has defined the word “available” as “a woman who is available to flirt, easily flirtable.” Many enraged women have taken to social media in response. Women all over the country said that the institution – the official regulatory body of the Turkish language – was inciting discrimination against women. They claimed that the word was not even culturally used when referring to a woman in any way.

Europe | Turkey | Culture

Turkish female authors blame gov’t for gender inequality

Source: Pangea Today

More than 220 Turkish female writers published an open letter declaring that the government created animosity between the sexes, which has ultimately led to violence against women. The authors highlighted the dominating masculine language in all aspects of society, which makes this kind of abuse “normal.” “The ruling party [AKP — the Justice and Development Party] has been trying to make the gender inequality more defined and rooted in Turkish society,” the declaration read. “Instead of stopping violence against women, the government clearly tries to define how a women should b

Europe | Turkey | Society

What Turkish women really want…

Source: Pangea Today

A mainstream Turkish newspaper asked 100 women what they would do if they had the chance to change women’s lives. Most said that they would set up special teams to guard bus stops in order to protect women from sexual harassment. Others said that they wanted men to take care of their children, not leave all of the parenting to the mother, do more housework, and learn to put their plates away after they are finished eating.