Numerous women were arrested in their homes in Istanbul late Wednesday evening. The detainees are accused of insulting the Turkish president during the 19th Feminist Night March on Women's Day March 8. The lawyers' association ÇHD reports that at least ten women have been arrested.

Many people had been arrested during and after the March 8 demonstration. Since 2003, the Istanbul Feminist Collective has organized the night march on the evening of March 8 to mark International Women's Struggle Day. In recent years, the patriarchal government has tried to stop the rebellion of the women's movement, which is now considered the strongest opposition in Turkey. This year's women's march was also banned in advance at the instigation of the Interior Ministry.

On the instructions of the governor's office, police sealed off all streets and roads leading to Istiklal Avenue in the central Beyoğlu district hours before the evening march. Thousands of women were unimpressed and then gathered for "stubborn disobedience" in front of the branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) in the small side street Çukur Çeşme where the crowd was surrounded by police. As the march began to move toward Taksim Square, police attacked with rubber bullets and pepper spray. Thereupon, the demonstration moved to the Karaköy district under further attacks.

An activist from the Feminist Collective said, "Every year on March 8, International Women's Day, they find excuses to create women-free streets. Sometimes it's justified by 'security concerns,' sometimes by the state of emergency, or by road construction. Other times it's the arbitrariness of cravat-wearing government suits whose red line we're not supposed to cross. For two centuries, witch hunts have been used to try to suppress women's voices. In the so-called 'modern' times, we are wanted to be silenced by means of laws and prohibitions. We have no intention of stepping back from our feminist rebellion, our hopes, our sense of belonging, and our fervor and desires. Long live feminist resistance."