Segregate the perverts not women

No to the pink wagon! No matter what the reason is; we are saying “No.” A very big “No.” Because it is a scandal, it is outdated, it is regressive. It is the product of a mentality that segregates women. It is against gender equality.  

We don’t want pink buses or pink wagons. We do not want to be pushed into pink zones. We want to exist in every field, without any obstructions. 

We want to be able to live safely and peacefully. We want to be able to wander everywhere at any hour of the day. 

In other words: Do not put us into pink wagons. Pushing women into a pink wagon means “You are separate from men; you are a different gender and you should be subject to a different treatment.” 

Even if you have made this decision with good intentions, it is wrong. It is a discriminatory practice. 

And it is never a solution, because the issue is not women and men sharing the same space. The issue is that murderers, perverts, rapists, harassers and those who think women are their slaves enjoy unlimited impunity. They get away with everything they do. Unfortunately this is what happens in this country. 

Because the enforcements are not deterrent, since this male-dominant mentality is not fought against, these damned perverts, rapists and harassers keep on emerging.
 
The solution is not segregating women, but exposing these despicable men, punishing them with deterrent penalties. 

Well, what about the situation of women who refuse to ride pink wagons? Will you accuse them of being “loose?” Will they not be stigmatized because they are not using your segregated zones? 

We are strongly against the pink wagon. It is not women who should be segregated, it should be those misogynistic men who should be segregated, who should be educated on how to live with women, like human beings.
 
Long live KAGİDER 

KAGİDER is one of these institutions that give me hope in this country. Women in KAGİDER are also awesome. I participated in one their activities last week. I admired once again the power women can have and solidarity among women. 

There was a project launched by KAGİDER in 2010 entitled “Women Leaders of the Future Project.” I think this project needs a standing ovation. 

It aims at preparing young women for business life, increasing their competences and professional communication networks for them to have a strong start to business life. The project has been funded by the World Bank since 2010. Sanofi Turkey is providing institutional support since 2011. 

What do they do? They select successful young women graduates for universities and train them to prepare for business life. They mentor them for six months in the job hunting processes. They follow up their recruitment. They have 500 graduates up until now. 

It is an honor for them to be a part of this group; they feel like sisters. They never lose contact. They are always communicating, developing and supporting each other. 

This is so nice. This project has received several awards from around the world. 

What can I say? Long live KAGİDER. Well done to women leaders of the future!

Seventh attack against olives 

We have seen once again that when we raise our voices, when we oppose and resist, some things change; positive results can be obtained, like with the olive grove issue. They made a decision; they initially were to open olive groves for development. But when the entire country stood up, the bill was withdrawn. But this was the seventh time this bill was presented. In the future, nobody knows whether or not this nonsense will be submitted again. 

“Olive trees in Turkey are under protection; the current law was clearly stopping any kind of industrial facility to be built in place of these facilities. The bill debated last week was trying to change that. It was paving the way for the establishment of all kinds of industrial facilities of olive groves,” Deniz Bayram, a lawyer for Greenpeace Mediterranean said. 

If this disastrous bill was ratified, what would Turkey have lost, I asked him. He replied: “Due to the olive protection law in recent years olive groves have been growing in Turkey. Income from olive exports has been $55 million in the 2015-2016 period. Turkey has 171 million olive trees generating a substantial income.

More than 750,000 families earn their livings from olives. About 10 million people make their livings from the olive sector. Thanks to this law, Turkey has become one of the top olive producers in the world. We aim to be the second in the world in 2023. It is our olive groves that generate this employment and this income.”