Colourful spectacles from around the country. Women have no desire for a ‘single man’.

The 8 March World Working Women’s Day was marked in a variety of events throughout the country. At the events, women made it known that they had no desire for a ‘single man’ regime.
 
ANKARA
 
In the capital Ankara, women wanted to march from Kurtuluş Square to Kolej Square as part of the event staged by trade unions, professional organisations and civil society organisations. The police, however, denied permission for this. The police stationed riot control vehicles at Kolej Square in readiness. Consequently, the event was held in Kurtuluş Park. The police inspected each individual banner as they conducted searches. For a while, the police refused to permit a banner with the slogan: ‘We are sick of men! We have no toleration for a single man.’ Women would not let go of the banner that the police wanted to take from them. This resulted in the banner being torn. Similar banners and banners containing remarks about the President were collected by the police at the entrance. There were occasional brief flare-ups of tension at search points. Many women carried ‘No’ banners with reference to the referendum slated for 16 April. The women also frequently chanted the slogan, ‘We don’t want single-man rule.’ In the addresses, stress was laid on women murders, harassment, violence, antifeminism and opposition to the state of emergency. There was frequent chanting of slogans in protest against the state of emergency.
 
ISTANBUL
 
Hundreds of women from Maltepe attended an event staged by Maltepe Municipality in Istanbul at which the Istanbul Women’s Orchestra took to the stage. Shortbread with a variety of wishes inscribed on them were distributed to women. The CHP’s Istanbul Province Women’s Branches also held a ‘Women Sing Folk Songs of Peace and Brotherhood’ event in Bakırköy’s Özgürlük Square yesterday. Thousands of women who thronged into the square sang folk songs in unison. The women made known their intention to vote ‘No’ in the referendum. Mayor of Avcılar, Dr Handan Toprak Benli, met up with women staff at Avcılar Municipal Square. A Women’s Work Market was also set up in Atatürk Park yesterday, at which women living in Avcılar were able to sell their work. Kartal Municipality, following a procession by the Day Nursery Directorate on 8 March Women’s Day, put on an event for women.
 
Thousands of women in Taksim for the feminist night march
 
The fifteenth feminist night march started at 7.30 pm in front of the French Cultural Centre in Beyoğlu.

The women, who set out saying, ‘Nothing doing alone. No. Women are strong together,’ congregated in I·stiklal Street for the fifteenth feminist night march.
 
IZMIR
 
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality held a Women’s Festival, attended by thousands of Izmir women, for the eighth time as part of its World Women’s Day events at Hall number 3 in the Culture Park. The 6,500-seat venue was filled to capacity on the first day of the five-day series of events. The festival’s opening ceremony, featuring colourful displays and engaging performances, was attended by Izmir Metropolitan Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu, his wife Dr Türkegül Kocaoğlu and CHP MP Şafak Pavey along with sub-province mayors and their spouses. Pavey noted that Izmir women conjured up self-confidence and smiling in her mind and said she was grateful to them for this reason.
 
DİYARBAKIR
 
In Diyarbakır, the HDP, DBP, DTK and TJA held a rally in Station Square to mark 8 March World Working Women’s Day under the slogan, ‘We are marching for “No” with the battle cry of women will win freedom through resistance.’ Women attending the rally in regional attire turned the square into a rainbow of colour. Banners could be seen on show in the square reading, ‘Women will win freedom through resistance,’ ‘No’s everywhere because we women are everywhere’ and ‘Long live 8 March.’ The women, performing folk dances, chanted in Kurdish and Turkish the slogans, ‘Women, life, freedom’ and ‘We will resist our way to victory.’ Sprits rose to fresh heights with the playing of the HDP’s referendum music. Women, saying ‘Na’ (No) sang along and kept time. At the meeting, addressed by DTK Co-Chair Leyla Güven, HDP Diyarbakır MP Feleknas Uca and HDP Diyarbakır MP Sibel Yiğitalp, musicians Rojda and Özlem Gerçek took to the stage and a folklore group gave a performance.
 
MALATYA
 
CHP Deputy General Chair Selin Sayek Böke visited the CHP’s Malatya Province Directorate and Malatya Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the occasion of 8 March World Working Women’s Day. Böke said, ‘The eighth of March is a very important day for us. One’s heart’s desire is for all working women to be celebrating in an enlightened Turkey and in days in which women receive the appreciation they deserve and are happily integrated into the system. But, unfortunately, it is an arduous day for working women. Of course, I deem it to be especially important to bring this ardour to the attention of this table and because the number of women around this table is quite small. I think this says something about Turkey. Turkey ranks 130^th among 144 countries in terms of equality between women and men.’
 
ADANA
 
Some in the squares, others in the fields



In Adana, many women spent 8 March World Women’s Day in the fields, working stints from six in the morning until sunset. Thirteen-year-old Rabia Kara, who works at a watermelon stand, indicating that she left school to start work last year due to a lack of financial means, said, ‘My dream is to become a gymnast.’ As to 21-year-old Ayşe, she wanted to be a doctor, but had to leave middle school in the second grade. Everest Mountaineering held an Adana nature walk, while the Natural Sports Club took the mothers of autistic children paragliding. The CHP, Republican Women’s Association and Vanguard Women made a press statement in Atatürk Park. In Ziyapaşa Boulevard, the women heroes of the War of Salvation, Nene Hatun, Şerife Bacı, Halide Edip Adıvar, Halime Çavuş, Sabiha Gökçen and the Aviatrix from Adana, Ms Halime, were portrayed with living statues.
 
MERSİN
 
The mayor is taking us to the pictures


World Women’s Day of one-hundred-year-old Şerife Bilir, a resident of Erdemli Sub-Province who has eight children and thirty grandchildren, was celebrated by her children. The MHP’s Mehmet Türe, Mayor of Mersin’s Anamur Municipality, toured greenhouses on the occasion of 8 March World Women’s Day and distributed gloves and sun cream to women working in agriculture. While he was doing so, a woman worker said, ‘Last year you took us to the cinema. Is that not on this year?’ Mayor Türe promised a cinema visit to the women. Türe said, ‘We must appreciate those cherished women who do physical labour by the sweat of their brow and bring home legitimately earned bread, and the value of those women at the places they work.’

ESKİŞEHİR
 
Those who earn their livings from stones

Hundreds of women workers employed at a quarry contribute both to the country’s and their household’s economy by sorting magnesite stones excavated from the quarry according to their quality. The company’s CEO Ekrem Bulur marked the women workers’ 8 March World Women’s Day and gave them carnations. Thirty-six-year-old Gülay Ünal said, ‘Working is a good thing. It is a very nice thing, both from an economic point of view, and from the point of view of giving a person self-confidence.’ Fifty-two-year-old Esen Taşdelen, who has worked at the same workplace for seventeen years, commented, ‘I congratulate everyone on World Women’s Day. Working women forever stand tall, are forever free and are forever successful. I want all women to work.’ As to thirty-three-year-old Selma Sap, she noted, ‘I congratulate all women on 8 March World Women’s Day. Working women forever stand tall and are free. There is nothing that women cannot succeed in.’
 
İSKENDERUN
 
Support for the strike in İskenderun

İskenderun Women’s Platform supported the international women’s strike on World Women’s Day. Platform spokesperson Ayten Kılınç said, ‘We, along with our sisters in the four corners of the world, are stepping up the struggle for equality and freedom against rising fascism, the exploitation of labour and male-state violence! We are everywhere.’ CHP Women’s Branches’ Chair, Nilgün Selçuk, for her part, said, ‘It is wished for we women to abandon the secular life we became acquainted with along with the Republic, the advancements we have attained in terms of being contemporary and equal individuals and the rights we have brought into being through hard struggle! Let it be known that our women’s decision is “No”.’ Nermin Kara of the Environmental Protection Association commented, ‘For as long as we women fail to act in an organised manner, this oppressive order will continue.’