All over the world women denounce violent criminals with the performance of the Chilean group Las Tesis. In Turkey this is a reason for police crackdown and arrests. In this scope, five students were arrested today in Ankara.
Five female students have been arrested on the Cebeci campus of Ankara University on Wednesday yet before performing the protest dance "A rapist on your way", which was created for the first time by the Chilean group Las Tesis, in their Turkish language adaptation to protest against patriarchal violence. Several men were also arrested in the crackdown.
The women reacted to the police attack chanting "We will not be silent, we will not be afraid, we will not obey" and "Do not stop the women, stop the perpetrators!” They also continued their slogans in the prisoner transport vehicle.
The performance, first staged on 25 November by the group "Las Tesis" in Chile on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, was adopted by women worldwide. In Turkey dozens of women have already been arrested for it. The protest song accuses the structures that tolerate, enable and perpetrate violence against women: “It is not the fault of the victims who were "in the wrong place" or "wearing the wrong things", but of the police, the judges, the state, the president. The rapist was you! The rapist is you!"
In Turkey, women are murdered by men every day. The very active women's movement throughout the country is constantly protesting with high-profile actions against feminicides and is perceived as a danger by the Erdoğan regime. In protest against the police assaults in Turkey, the dance performance has been staged by women in various countries in front of Turkish consulates in recent weeks.
