Osmanağaoğlu: Women's resistance in the Middle East and North Africa is getting stronger

  • actual
  • 12:39 18 August 2021
  • |
img
İSTANBUL - Feminist Hülya Osmanağaoğlu, who participated in the Middle East and North Africa Women's Conference, said, "The equivalent of the voice that rose from the Feminist Night March and March 8 rose in the Middle East and North Africa."
 
The second of the Middle East and North Africa Women's Conference, which was first held in Diyarbakir in May 2013, was held in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, on 30-31 July this year. The echoes of the conference, where the establishment of a  women's alliance was decided, continue. The conference is important in terms of determining the common struggle strategies of Middle Eastern and North African women's organizations.
 
We talked to the independent feminist Hülya Osmanağaoğlu, who attended the conference from the Turkish delegation, about the importance of the conference, the decisions taken and the women's struggle.
 
UNITY FOR DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION
 
Stating that the women talked about the problems they experienced and how they came together in the struggle, Osmanağaoğlu stated that they emphasized the need for women to come together and fight together for the democratic revolution. Evaluating the decision taken at the conference to form a women's alliance, Osmanağaoğlu said, "By seeing how societies are affected by each other, how the feminist struggle strengthens women beyond borders, a framework was created on issues women should take action simultaneously.
 
REPRESENTATION IN THE POLITICAL AREA
 
Stating that the oppression of political Islam and secularism were widely discussed at the conference, Osmanağaoğlu said that the debates on how women's representation in the political field should be was among the striking issues. Osmanağaoğlu said the following about the debates: “The most striking feminist emphasis for me was that it doesn't matter how many women hold office in the Parliament, what matters is how many feminist women were in those assemblies to defend women's rights. Not only a women's representation, but also the representation of women in the political arena, as we have seen here with our friends from the Kurdish movement, was insistently emphasized. We must be involved in this struggle and have political representation. The emphasis was on feminist representation, not parliamentary representation. An important issue for me is that women from all countries stated that it is important that the legitimacy of the feminist struggle is strong in order to build real democracies in their own countries. They said that real democracies could only be built for the whole society at the point where women are liberated."
 
WOMEN'S RESISTANCE
 
Evaluating the importance of the conference and the impact it will create, Osmanağaoğlu emphasized that the conference is important in terms of showing how strong the women's struggle in the Middle East and Africa is despite the increasing pressure from patriarchy. Stating that this situation lifts the spirits, Osmanağaoğlu said, “We see how tens of thousands of women who took to the streets during the Feminist Night March regressed patriarchy. We are on the right track. The oppressive system, fascism, political and Islamic oppressions can all be regressed through the struggle of women. In fact, when we look at the women's struggles in the Middle East and North Africa, we see that there is resistance everywhere and that the most powerful steps forward are taken.”
 
MOST DYNAMIC FORCE OF SOCIAL OPPOSITION
 
Osmanağaoğlu said, “The strongest and broadest area of ​​legitimacy of the social opposition is the feminist movement at the moment" and said, "The equivalent of the voice that rose from the Feminist Night March and March 8 rose in the Middle East and North Africa."
 
ROJAVA WOMEN'S REVOLUTION
 
Stating that the Women's Revolution in Rojava was widely mentioned in the conference is a model on the women's empowerment and how it should actually be, Osmanağaoğlu said: "The model that goes beyond the model democratic revolution in Northern and Eastern Syria, that is, not only legal rights, but also women's empowerment against men in the home, protecting their rights at home. In this sense, the democratic revolution in North and East Syria shows how the next step of democratic revolution must be."
 
MA / Diren Yurtsever

View More Articles

13/06/2022
13:12 Statements of detainees from March to Gemlik, taken without attorneys
12:31 Second military operation against Mount Cudi
12:15 5-year-old sexually assaulted in Bab under Turkey's control
11:31 Kurdish weekly newspaper publishes with the headline 'Truth will out with our pens'
11:20 Swiss campaign for detained journalists
11:03 Journalists detained in Bursa, released
10:42 Makhmur under embargo for 3 years: Attacks will be repelled with resistance
11/06/2022
13:58 Şenyaşar family: There is hope as long as you have the fight in you
11:34 Our colleagues are detained for 4 days now: We draw strength from the truth
10:35 Great Gemlik Rally: We have to crack the walls of İmralı
10/06/2022
23:07 775 attorneys applied to visit Öcalan
16:42 'Hitler stole Baran's tablet PC!
16:21 Detention periods of journalists extended by 2 days
14:59 Message from detained journalists: We will continue to write
14:36 Şenyaşar families calls for solidarity on anniversary of the massacre
13:36 Technical equipments of journalists and production companies confiscated
13:25 Journalists detained for 3 days
09/06/2022
21:20 Solidarity message for detained journalists from Debbie Bookchin
18:15 Turkish air strike against Qamishlo: 5 injured
15:37 Hearing of 46 journalists postponed
14:17 Detained journalists held in single cells
13:32 Emine Şenyaşar: I will not leave here until I get justice
12:46 Colleagues of detained journalists: We will not bow down
12:18 Call from MSD Presidential Council Member to all components of Syria
11:31 Human bones found in JİTEM base
08/06/2022
17:06 21 journalist detaine
16:02 'You have not been able to silence the free press for 50 years, you will not be able to do it now'
15:46 AKP-KDP media targets journalists
15:41 Decision of restriction to the file of detained journalists
14:38 Müftüoğlu: Detaining journalists is an effort to obscure the truth
12:20 Hewler becomes the crime scene of intelligence officers
09:36 Many journalists detained in Diyarbakır
07/06/2022
14:58 70-year-old citizen detained in Tatvan
14:52 SDF Military Council convened extraordinarily
14:49 Relatives of prisoner says state officials force them to give up
13:39 Lawyers of Öcalan submit new application for a meeting with their client
13:39 Journalist Kav: KDP has become AKP
06/06/2022
18:39 Journalist Müftüoğlu released
15:56 Field Hospital filled with wounded soldiers
13:45 Emine Şenyaşar fined for insulting Soylu and Yıldız
12:47 Journalist Dicle Müftüoğlu referred to court
12:45 'KDP preparing to attack Metîna'
12:20 'Helicopters hit and downed are documented'
07:27 3 injured in attack against Eyn İsa
04/06/2022
15:15 Mazlum Ebdi: We will resist with our people against any possible attack
12:49 Journalist Cûdî: People brought from different parts of Syria settled in invaded areas
11:58 Turkey was protested in Afrin
11:43 Şenyaşar family: We will continue to demand justice
09:25 Detention period of journalist Müftüoğlu extended for 4 days
03/06/2022
15:46 Öcalan's attorney Taşçı: Problems can't be solved without negotiation