Democratic Regions Party (Demokratik Bölgeler Partisi - DBP) Co-chair Sebahat Tuncel, imprisoned in the Kandıra Type F Prison No.1, sent a letter to the ANF on the June 24 elections. Tuncel said, “We have seen that no other party but the HDP includes women, they all just see women as potential votes.”

Sebahat Tuncel’s letter is as follows:

“We know from our own experiences that when women are not included, no decisions are taken in favor of women and the patriarchal system traps women in traditional roles outside of social life. That is why, rather than wait to see what the parties would promise us, or if they included us in the lists, we as women must go in, and transform them through struggle.

In this sense, HDP is a party that opens up space for women and prioritizes women’s freedom struggle. The reason for this is the presence of a strong women’s movement within the HDP. It is because they are making the organized struggle of women’s movements in Turkey and Kurdistan more visible.

Election processes allow for women’s participation. Feminist and socialist women’s movements, women waging the freedom struggle, those who want to walk the streets without fear, who want women to be employed, to receive what they deserve for their labor, to have the invisible domestic labor be seen, those who say ‘No,’ to the patriarchal system now have an opportunity. We can do good things for women, if we show solidarity with the HDP with our own strength, in an organized fight.

All in all, if we want a different world, it is a historic responsibility for us to shape it with our own hands, and to organize women’s emancipation against all oppressive, fascistic, enslaving, hierarchical, nationalist, sexist, fundamentalist and militarist powers.

New times call for new songs. It is time for women to sing new songs. I believe June 24 will be a new beginning for women to sing anthems and songs of freedom, and I wish you all serkeftin.”