İYİ Party leader vows to fight for women’s rights no matter what

ANKARA

İYİ (Good) Party Chair Meral Akşener has vowed to continue her fight unshakably to promote women’s right in every field of life.

“I will never quit my struggle even if death awaits me at the very end and I am left alone. This is the promise of a Muslim Turkish woman,” Akşener told her parliamentary group on March 10 as she devoted her weekly address to International Women’s Day.

Akşener recalled that as a female politician, she was also subjected to sexist attacks by mainly the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) officials, including its chairman, Devlet Bahçeli.

“Not only me, but all of our group members were insulted by the MHP officials,” Akşener said.

The İYİ Party considers women’s problems as both a social and a political issue, Akşener said.

“We don’t see women issues as a matter beyond politics. For us, this is a matter of democracy and therefore is a political issue,” she said.

Akşener underlined the need for the full implementation of the Istanbul Convention, which promotes women’s rights and stipulates effective measures against femicide.

Akşener also drew attention to the fact that Turkish women were underpaid and work in difficult conditions in comparison to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

“Women’s unemployment rate in EU is 7.1 percent, and in the OECD countries, it is 5.4 percent. This rate in Turkey is 15.2 percent, meaning two times higher than the EU and three times higher than the OECD,” Akşener said, vowing that they will take all the necessary steps to change this picture when they come to power.