March 2012 It all started with women daring to stage a play called “My Mother, My Sister, My Wife” on Women’s day last March in the campus of BlackSea Technical University in the city of Trabzon in Turkey. Having one of the most Sunni government friendly and reactionary administration where it became customary for the […]
March 2012
It all started with women daring to stage a play called “My Mother, My Sister, My Wife” on Women’s day last March in the campus of BlackSea Technical University in the city of Trabzon in Turkey. Having one of the most Sunni government friendly and reactionary administration where it became customary for the administration to have the police attack any student activity that is not in line with nationalism, Islam or the government, the Blacksea Technical University refused the stage play by denying the theater to the women players.
Insisting on the importance of the play and it’s message to both men and women in a male dominated society where “honor killings” are still considered acceptable to the vast majority of the population, the women players also refused to give in and hung a banner and started a sit-in to protest the official ban. This did no go well with the Muslim administration of the university and the Rector who ordered the private security guards to attack the women in three separate incidents. But the women prevailed and continued their protest sit-in.
With the change the government made to the higher education law, the Rectors of public universities are now assigned by processes that favors the government selected administrators in Turkey. The change broke the already ailing independence of the college administration and turned the universities into puppets of the regime and the government, now discussing the religious fairy tales as having the same credibility as any other scientific theory on campuses.
Having failed at scaring the women artists, the administration now summoned the help of the nationalist fascists, equivalent to the skin-heads or the neo-nazi brigades found in Europe or the US. The neo-nazi fascists suddenly staged an attack on the women singing the songs they had written for the play and snatched the banner and ran into the student association room. However, the women chased them to their den and refused to leave until their banner was returned. At one point, the players entered the student association room and demanded their banner back. At this time, the fascists attacked the women physically, beating them to the floor and dragging them outside. Resisting even the physical assault, women still did not step back but held their ground until the security officer showed up.
When finally the security officer came, the fascists did not allow him to enter the premises. After he negotiated with the neo-nazi nationalists the officer entered the association room but soon emerged and told the women that their banner was not to be found.
Women resolved to make yet another banner and resist. The fascists openly threatened the women while the security officer stood by that they would come and tear every banner the women players would make. The event showed once again the cooperation between the security, administration, and the fascists to the students who observed the attack and who were asking why the women were not allowed to put a show on women’s rights in a university in the first place.
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