International Women's Day 2014

Since 2010  I mentioned women several times on this blog. Women who have been brave, women who have suffered, women who chose death... Let's remember some women who found themselves in the midst of a conflict, wishing peace to pervade our earth. When I say peace, I mean not only peace between nations or communities,  but also between individuals and among families so that honor killings and all kinds of violence against women can be eliminated as well.

Nazire : In trail of the life of a Turkish woman from Erzurum

I owe this blog to my grandmother Nazire, who had to flee from Erzurum before it was occupied on Feb.12, 1916, and was able to come back home long years after when peace could be restored. If Erzurum weren't emancipated my mother would remain a victim. Would the world be aware of her?

 

Seher and Kamer Sisters : In my post titled War and Sex Slavery I mentioned these two sisters saying "..Beautiful young girls and women abducted from villages and taken away to be coerced to prostitution in Yerevan and Russia. Heroines appear at such times to alleviate our heavy hearts while we are reading about such tragic events. Seher and Kamer took the knives and weapons of men they had to sleep together when the men fell asleep, ran away to the mountains and set up a bandit and gave hard times to the threatening men. If all women were that mighty and brave, men would dare not abduct them! Alas, women suffer very heavily at war times.

Young Women and Girls of Yukarı Kırzı Village, Bayburt : In my post titled Two Faces of Bayburt 1916 - 1918 , Mehmet Ali Mehmetoğlu told: "...We, all women and children, sat beneath the stairs nearby her [Aunt Gueler] house. One of the young women who had her small child in her lap, stood up and said: “Rather than living like this, it is better to die, I am going to throw myself to the well, you may follow as you wish.” She walked towards the well and first threw her child, then herself. One after another young women and girls stood up and followed her. If I am not wrong 17 or 18 of them threw themselves into the well; the well by the house of Aunty Gueler."  Great importance has been imposed on chastity in Muslim society. Rather than being raped these young women chose death. The photograph depicting celebration of emancipitation in 1958 is from the village Facebook page .

Young Women of Van : Yukarı Kırzı young women were not alone in this choice. During Van insurrection in early April 1915, before relocation on the verge of Russian invasion, Armenian insurgents took some 40-50 women to Akhtamar (Agthamar) Island. Those women also chose death throwing themselves to Lake Van. When Akthamar Church was opened for prayers local people were in great frustration remembering those dark days when the Church was used as the headquarter of the insurrection and had been the stage of not only such aggravated assaults but atrocities and killings, and was also used as arsenal. People who knows all these, could not grasp how decent people could pray in a place where such indecent events had occurred in the past. A monument in memory of those women should be built on this island in front of the Church by an Armenian sculptor as an apology to Van Muslim people if Armenians ever want to pray there again. They should know that the place is called Assault Island (Tecavüz Adası). To alleviate the situation Armenians could have apologised before they came to Van at least. BBC news of September 11, 2013 was titled "Turkey: Armenians celebrate baptisms in symbolic church". It was reported that "more than 1,000 pilgrims gathered ... to see two adults and three children being baptised. It was noted that "Highlighting long-standing divisions between the communities, a small crowd of Turkish protesters were kept away by a substantial police presence." BBC  was apparently not interested why there was a protest. If the number of protesters was small, why the number of the police was substantial? BBC's approach reminds war times when unbaised information could not be provided because of propaganda war. One wonders if signing a peace treaty and stopping fighting does really mean real peace in the sense of leaving the conflict behind  and approaching each other open heartedly? It looks as if everybody still hold their positions and news are still not unbiased! The west does not care what local people feel and think, what happens to them. Why the west still does not recognize the sufferings of the Muslim people in the WWI?

 

Fighting Armenian Women : I came across this picture of Armenian young women who fought against the Ottomans on web accidentally. No name, no information. But I wanted to put it here, because I would like those who say that it is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens see it. The argument is that there was no need for women and children to be relocated and they should have been protected. In the midst of such a fierce war, attacked on all frontiers and betrayed inside the country, how could government distinguish who was the mother who would pause a danger while protecting the partisan guerilla son, or fighting herself like the girls in this picture, from a non-political innocent civilian? It is high time for the world to understand that Armenians caused sufferings at least as much as they had, if it not more. 

(Photo: http://arastiralim.net/com/osmanli-karsiti-ermeni-ceteler.html)

Women and War Today : How can one forget women suffering at the moment in Syria, in Palestine, in Iraq, in Myanmar, in Afghanistan and elsewhere on this Women's Day. Let's hope humankind to find more sensible ways of sharing world resources to meet real needs at reasonable level; put aside greed, pride, envy and wrath, and stop fighting.  Women should get more involved in politics and governance to provide the human touch needed on socio-political issues  and conflicts. 

(Photo Flickr/Creative Commons License/Syriana2011)

Yet, despite all conflicts and violence let's still never lose our hopes and

wish that more and more eyes smile every day.