By ÖZÜM Ö. (Kırmızı Gazete / Istambul)
Around the world, women and LGBTI+ people are victims of psychological, physical, economic, and sexual violence at home, on the street, in schools, and in the workplace. Often, the necessary protective measures for victims are not implemented, and access to shelters and health services is extremely limited.
To make this violence visible and strengthen the fight against sexism, every Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we defend our right to life and that of all other women, inspired by the Mirabal sisters, murdered 63 years ago in the Dominican Republic during their struggle against the dictatorship.
We are stepping up our struggle and filling the streets and squares, because our lives matter!
With the worsening of the global economic crisis, more than half of the female population has become unemployed. Migrant women are also often excluded from the health system. Capitalism, with its eagerness to perpetuate exploitation, reproduces forms of barbarism that also manifest themselves as violence against women.
It is no coincidence that right-wing and repressive regimes are on the rise around the world. Some young people, desperate for their future, are looking for immediate gratification. Cultures that encourage violence are gaining ground, shaped by hatred, racism, and misogyny. Atrocious acts such as the one committed by Semih Çelik, who threw himself from the Byzantine walls of Istanbul after brutally murdering Ayşenur Halil and İkbal Uzuner in October, are a product of this violent culture.
Violence is not isolated; it is political
Gender inequality is not an isolated or exceptional phenomenon. Statistics show that one in three women in the world has experienced violence at some point in their lives, and one in five has been a victim of rape. These figures are increasing day after day.
We know very well that most of the murdered women had already denounced their aggressors multiple times, but they were ignored. Not only are we not protected, but the policies of impunity pave the way for violence.
In Turkey, gender-based violence feeds on the discourse of “protecting the family.” The conquests achieved after arduous struggles are taken away from us through legal regulations driven by conservative and reactionary pressures. The annulment of the Istanbul Convention and the attempts to amend Law 6284 [the 2012 law to protect women and children from stalking and violence] are examples of these political attacks.
The policies of denial and extermination against the Kurdish people and the growing racism towards immigrants also manifest themselves mainly as violence against women. In Turkey, the increasingly authoritarian Palace Regime is trying to suppress the mobilizations of women demanding their rights, intimidating them with arrests and detentions.
In addition to femicides, imperialist wars disproportionately affect women. In many parts of the world, masses are protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the massacres of women and children in its attacks in Lebanon.
Hundreds of protesters are demanding an immediate halt to the trade and sale of arms to Israel, noting that since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed 42,519 Palestinians, including 17,000 children and 11,378 women, and injured another 99,637 in its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
How to fight?
Today’s bourgeois politics seem to open spaces for women to fight in various fields: positions such as mayors, parliamentary seats or even the head of state. Kamala Harris, a [former] presidential candidate in the United States, is a good example. Despite being the first female vice president of the United States, Harris has not made great efforts for women’s rights since taking office. In the United States, at least three women are murdered every day and one woman is raped every 90 seconds. It does not seem likely that, if she became president, her efforts for women’s rights would have been significant.
As a child, I was thrilled by the election of Tansu Çiller as Turkey’s prime minister in the 1990s, despite my family’s political views. However, during her tenure, no significant progress was made on women’s rights. On the contrary, her government went down in history as a period marked by deep state corruption, economic crisis, and unsolved murders.
From historical experience with similar figures, bourgeois politics cannot go beyond a symbolic discourse on gender equality. Capitalism and patriarchy are the roots of the problem.
Bourgeois politics does not offer real solutions because it is part of the problem. The brutal system we live in is patriarchal capitalism. Male domination is one of the pillars on which capitalism is based and, although historically it precedes it, it has been adapted to serve class society.
The oppression of women has its material basis in their reduction to property within class societies. This phenomenon is not only economic, but also cultural and ideological.
Therefore, we cannot eliminate gender inequality without linking it to the class problem or without recognizing that the bourgeois class holds the monopoly of capitalist power.
In other words, there will be no real transformation until patriarchal capitalism is dismantled and a system based on gender equality, without classes and without exploitation, is built.
As long as we do not change the system, there is no guarantee that the gains made will last. That is why it is essential to build the broadest possible front to defend our right to life against violence, exploitation and oppression. A front that advances relentlessly!
Let us raise our struggle for an equal and free future against murder, harassment, rape, and hatred.
Let us weave together a united and organized struggle for the defense of our lives, the restoration of the Istanbul Convention and the effective application of Law 6284. Let’s not let the patriarchal capitalist system isolate us and make us desperate. Let’s build together the dream of a future without classes, without exploitation and full of equality.
Guaranteed income and decent and safe housing for all!
Protection against violence and aggravated punishment for aggressors!
Long live our organized struggle! Long live solidarity among women!
Photo: Protest following the murder of Özgecan Asian in 2015. (picture-alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com)