Şevin Sarıbulak of the HDP Young Women's Coordination sees the "Purple Mobilization" campaign as a response to the government's efforts to "create a reasonable woman" and speaks about self-defense workshops.
The Coordination of Young Women of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has launched the campaign " On to Purple Mobilization" against the increasing femicide and sexual violence. The campaign is expected to continue with actions and workshops until March 8. Şevin Sarıbulak from the coordination of the campaign sees the campaign as a means to organize women and thus empower them in the face of patriarchal violence.
"The regime has used the pandemic as a means to dominate women"
Sarıbulak who spoke to Mezopotamya news agency said: "The regime has used the pandemic as a means to dominate women. It has tried to crush the organization of women. We, as youth, in contrast, have launched the campaign 'On to Purple Mobilization' and through this we have developed self-defense. The struggle against the prevailing attack on women is exemplary. Our goal in the campaign is to expand the organized struggle. Our campaign is also a response to the monist regime's policy of creating a 'reasonable woman'."
Self-Defense Workshops
The activist continues: "With the campaign we wanted to raise our voice against violence against women, rape and sexual violence against children. It was launched on December 8 in Istanbul. It is a campaign involving women in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. As part of the campaign, we launched various workshops in many provinces and districts, focusing on the special war, gender and self-defense. Our poetry and story workshops will start next month. We have completed some of them. We're going to have a young women's conference at the end of February."
Expanding the struggle
Sarıbulak added: "Our campaign is for all women. The system is aware of the leading role of young people in society. This is shown by its aggressive attitude, arrests and detentions of young women. Everywhere there are young women, there is a base for struggle. We young women are now calling for 'purple mobilization' against spying, assimilation, forced prostitution, sexual violence and rape. On this basis we will lead our struggle. We invite all young women to join the campaign against the regime's policies on this basis."
