ARTICLES
The Imperative to be Smart
Nükhet Sirman
In the beginning of Halide Edip’s novel Kalp Ağrısı (Heart Ache), published in 1924, we meet Zeynep and Hasan between whom later on, their inability in coming together will result in the birth of a great love. A love so great that it burns and destroys everything around it, not allowing any thing at all to shoot forth, bud out… This is exactly why Zeynep, in the sequel to this novel, called Zeyno’nun Oğlu (Zeyno’s Son), will give this love up, and reasonably prefer a marriage based upon affection and respect, instead. However, at this moment in which they meet for the first time, both are still young, single and assertive. Hasan is an army officer with a bright future ahead of him, while Zeynep is the educated, smart but slightly rebellious daughter of a doctor from Istanbul.
Practising Theatre of the Opressed with Women
Jale Karabekir
“If the oppressed himself (and not a surrogate artist) performs an action, this action, performed in a theatrical fiction, will allow him to change things in his real life. ”
In this article I will attempt to discuss how Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed techniques may be handled with a feminist approach and how women’s liberation or resistance practices can take place through theatre/performance. It will be appropriate to begin with a short introduction to the Theatre of the Oppressed, which is a theatre technique new to Turkey. The Theatre of the Oppressed is a form of political theatre which began in Brazil in the 1950s along with the labour movement and developed further with the origin of different techniques in Europe .
LGBT is not Present in Turkey: Even If It Does, It’s Against Public Morality!
Yeşim Başaran
Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, travesty or transsexual in Turkey is not guilt in terms of the Law. These identities had never been defined as guilt in the laws of our land. If we look at the world, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, they can be counted among countries where homosexuality is guilt. The qualifications of punishments differ among countries. In addition, some countries punish both male and female homosexuals, while some of them include only male homosexuality, and female homosexuality is ignored.
What Does Esmeray Teach Us?
Yeşim Başaran
It’s been a year since Esmeray has started performing a stand-up show called ‘Sack of the Witch.’ Besides performing every Friday night in a bar, she introduced her play in Bilgi University, Boğaziçi University and METU. ‘Sack of the Witch’ is presented on internet through those sentences: ‘The Sack of the Witch is on its way. It is a solo stand-up written and performed by transsexual feminist Esmeray. The performance is based on her own life story. Esmeray became aware of her gender identity during her early youth when living in Kars and immigrated to Istanbul before becoming 18 in order to live a relatively manageable life. After working in certain jobs, Esmeray became a sex worker first as a gay, then as a transsexual. After she became acquainted with women’s movement and feminism, she gave up sex labor. Esmeray is still working mornings at Amargi on a professional level and selling stuffed mussels in Istiklâl Street between 7-12 pm.
Citizen Forever
Melissa Bilal
Standing next to you, I was talking about being sent away from homeland. I was talking about the feeling of loss which is scraped to our bodies… How could I know… How could I imagine that the biggest pain will come with your loss… How could I imagine that I will be homeless after you actually… how, that we all will be…
I haven’t written since you, haven’t spoken… I required everyone to stop talking, everyone to stop talking for a while… Stop talking! Can you manage to shut up?
The Women of Forced Migration
Dilek Kurban
I was among the guests of a TV show where a group of women were discussing the Kurdish issue before the July 22 elections. We as five women who were hosted by Şirin Payzın and Ece Temelkuran discussed the Kurdish issue from various perspectives. Upon telling how she was utterly shocked when an elderly Kurdish woman she had encountered in one of the houses on a street in Tarlabaşı, where the victims of forced migration live, had kissed her hand, Ece Temelkuran asked me the following question: “What did the displaced people bring with them when they migrated to Istanbul?”
Women at Novamed Have Started Working, What About Others?
Necla Akgökçe
The Novamed strike has ended. The boss of Novamed and Petrol-İş Syndicate have signed a collective contract on December 18, 2007, Tuesday at 11 am. In the afternoon of the same day, at 3 pm, the poster “There is a strike in this office” which had been in the Novamed office of Antalya Free Zone for 448 days was taken down.
The contract is for three years. The wages which were approximately 350 euros before the strike were increased by 9,20 percent and raised to approximately 383 euros. Starting from Janury 1, 2008, the wages will be raised 5 percent in euros annually. The increase rates will be 4 percent in both 2009 and 2010 and a 300 euro social package payment will be made to the women workers.
About Stolen Lives with Saliha Ermez (Interview)
Nilgün Yurdalan
Two licensed prostitutes stood as a candidate for 2007’s general elections in Istanbul. They couldn’t get elected of course, only got around about 300 votes. What Ayse and Saliha were saying is; ‘‘we became candidates in order to confront losers, women whose lives were stolen, to the winners who were stealing our lives away. For the right to live of those who has oppressed, treated contemptuously or incurred by sexual assault. We became candidates for the purpose of building up women shelters. For freedom and justice. For not being buried as a subject of a file in police records because of our prostitution licenses and trying to get rid of the records. We became candidates for our insurance rights and getting recovery payments. The freedom, which has granted by someone as a favor, means captivity’’
I was thinking about questions when I decided to make an interview with Saliha for Amargi.
The Woman Citizen in Turkey
Nükhet Sirman
It has always been said that a citizen has no race, sex or religion. Both in Turkey and in the liberal democracies of the West, it is said that citizenship is determined through a discourse of universal human rights. Indeed, constitutions have made such a clause one of their most basic principles. The saying “Happy is the one who says I’m a Turk” can, in a sense, be interpreted as a statement which has the purpose of constructing a citizen fit for the universal norms, which are to be valid for all Turkish citizens. However, everyday practice demonstrates quite clearly that citizens in Turkey are not at all perceived as an abstract group of people with equal rights. This inequality appears, first of all, as an issue of identity. Those who should have no difference in their identities as citizens are, when appropriate, defined through expressions such as ‘alleged citizen’ or ‘businessman with Jewish origin’. And Europe, when continually reminding Turkey that Europe is actually a group of values, is, in reality, defining the ‘European citizen’.
For a Feminist Strategy Against Poverty
Yıldız Ecevit
Poverty in general and specifically women’s poverty is an issue that has to hold an important place in our agenda. In parallel with the increasing unfair distribution of income and welfare society’s coming to the edge of collapsing, poverty deepening and becoming widespread across the world stands before us as one of the concrete examples of globalization. There is no doubt poverty is a global problem. However, while developed countries escape this problem with light scrapes, the Third World Countries heavily experience it. Because aforesaid countries are negatively affected by global economic developments.
