İYİ Party leader praises Turkish women’s historical struggle

ANKARA

İYİ (Good) Party chair Meral Akşener on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8 recalled women’s struggles throughout Turkey’s history, saying that those became extraordinary examples even for the world.

“Don’t be fooled by the male-dominated discourses of those in power. The struggle of Turkish women has perhaps not been seen anywhere else in the world,” she said, addressing İYİ Party members on Women’s Day.

Turkish women have never given up on their quest for rights in any period of history, the politician emphasized.

“You shamelessly say that we don’t deserve anything. Women of this country deserved everything,” she said.

They deserved it with the “strength of her wrist and heart,” she said, adding, “She deserved it by being forced into choices. And she deserved it with the effort she showed in keeping her family, country and nation alive and standing.”

“You will get used to women who do not deal with their headscarf, who are not exploited with their bodies, who do not watch their back at every step, who do not hide when they cry when they are divorced, and who stand like mountains on their own feet,” Akşener stated.

Some circles in Turkey want to “suppress” the voices of women and open debate on their most basic rights, she said.

They want to “satisfy their pathetic egos” and ignore the women’s rights movement, Akşener said.

“We are here; we are still standing. As long as we are here, you will be doomed to lose. You will get used to women. You’ll get used to it whether you like it or not. Otherwise, you will lose in the next elections,” she added.