Change That Does Not Change by Begüm Çelebi

Everyone checks their social media accounts as soon as they get out of bed. There is a typical social media content, where people share their dogs or selfies with their cup of coffee. That may sound typical for everyone, but not people in Turkey. When Turkish resident checks their accounts in the morning, the first thing they see is a photo of a person who is not living anymore, a woman who got murdered by someone she trusted, maybe trusted the most in her life involving her husband and father. Turkish people are accustomed to a social hierarchy where women are valued less and femicides do not sound extraordinary at all. For decades, women have been fighting to survive. It gives me the thought that only the walls are listening to their screams since only the walls remember the names of women who have been murdered. In Turkey, each street has at least one building wall full of the names of women murdered. However, names get erased from the walls as it rains, so from the minds. Not only femicides but every part of gender inequality has become a part of our customs. Inequality is rooted in some unchangeable rules in public. The social hierarchy lasting for decades drown women every day in an invisible way, starting from their birthday. We have a lot to change. The first step, that everyone is reluctant to accept, is to start changing. As it may be predicted, to be a part of change is not as effortlessly as writing it. Consequently, as time passes nothing but the number of femicides changes nationwide. 

Turkish people are interested in the news. They always read online or in-paper news to see what has changed in the last twenty-four hours. They always keep up with the breaking news, trying to understand how the world is evolving. However, for decades, not even a few of them saw the change needed as they read Turkey’s ranking on gender equality getting lower every year. Women in Turkey have to live under the control of some cultural rules which originate centuries ago, refusing to change like a drop of oil refusing to mix with water. This constant structure framed centuries ago feels that women are in a simulation controlled by men, with no way out. People still think in the same way our ancestors did; as every second changes, the burden on women becomes heavier. Women cannot become leaders, engineers, dress too colorful, become too successful, in short, they cannot get attention. The public sees their place behind men, adding that this should stay the same as their childhood. Once a woman breaks this chain, she has to deal with people shaming her. This invisible pressure makes women so objectified that men act like they possess women. We have adopted a community where women are valued less. Even the everyday language commonly used is proof since there are lots of proverbs and idioms which devalue women, yet people reject to change their word choices. Moreover, the right meaning of feminism is not correctly understood by either authorities or citizens. In such chaos, men are considered to be a perfect fit for being leaders, who make implementations that directly affect women’s lives, the most known being leaving the Istanbul Convention in the middle of the night and later stating that this could “change” the ideal Turkish family. Now, there are no major legal implementations in Turkey that protect women. There are just men who are accused of crimes such as abuse or murder and leave the court without getting any punishment. 

The public reaction always follows the same pattern, refusing to change. People share posts on their social media accounts, a hashtag about how hard it is to be a woman in Turkey become a trend. Public awareness is as long as an Instagram story; nothing but such an unchangeable hierarchy remains. Everyone around me- my friends, relatives, people I know- is used to existing in which time slowly challenges women more and more. We should get out of our stereotypes and stop appreciating men for their minor contributions and start supporting women to discover themselves. We need an environment where women are not discouraged by old-fashioned public reactions and ignorance. Doubtless, once women acquire equal opportunities as men, they will do their best not for themselves for Turkey as well. As Ataturk says: everything we see in this world is the creative work of women.