ISTANBUL - Stating that the most fundamental need in the process is the socialisation of peace, "There can be no peace without women's voice, without the establishment of an order where women can live in safety," Feride Eralp, member of the December Feminist Collective, said.

 

While discussions on the process and developments in the context of the solution of the Kurdish question continue, the struggle for peace is on the agenda of women. Since the 1990s, the feminist movement and the Kurdish women's movement have come together on various grounds to organise a joint struggle for peace. In this context, the Women's Initiative for Peace (BİKG) was established in May 2009. Women then continued to organise the struggle for peace through various platforms and events. With the recent process, the "I Need Peace Women's Initiative" was formed at a conference.

 

WAR AND WOMEN

 

Feride Eralp, member of the December Feminist Collective, spoke about war and the role of women in peace processes. Pointing out that the conditions of war strengthen patriarchy, Feride Eralp emphasised that conflict means violence for women. Feride Eralp stated that women's bodies are turned into a battlefield in wars and reminded the period of curfews in 2015. Feride Eralp said, "In the cities that were blockaded, the gendarmerie and special operations forces writing on the walls full of rape insinuations and threats, entering the bedrooms, writing on the mirrors, taking their own photographs and sharing them on social media were the most blatant manifestations of this."

 

Feride Eralp stated that sexual violence, rape and the threat of rape are used as a weapon of war in the ongoing war and said, "As feminists, we have always put this sexist face of war on the agenda, we have always made it a problem, we have always tried to expose it. I think that being against the war, raising the demand for peace, openly saying what kind of peace imagination we have is always a part of the feminist struggle."

 

'THERE CAN BE NO PEACE WITHOUT WOMEN'

 

Feride Eralp said, "Women are the ones who experience the violence of war in its most intense form. They carry both sexual violence and the burden of rebuilding the lives destroyed by the war. Women are often excluded from peace processes and peace tables and are not included. This is a common experience in many parts of the world. There can be no peace without women's voice, without the establishment of an order in which women can live in safety."

 

'PEACE MUST BE SOCIALISED'

 

Feride Eralp emphasised that as a feminist movement, together with the Kurdish women's movement, there is a need for a ground that produces a voice against the war and said, "We started on a path by discussing together with our friends from TJA. And this path eventually evolved into a conference in Istanbul and the 'I Need Peace Women's Initiative' that emerged after this conference. How this initiative will proceed from now on will become clearer with the meetings and statements to be made by the initiative."

 

Emphasising that one of the most fundamental needs is to socialise peace, Feride Eralp underlined that this also means that society embraces the demand for peace.

 

MA / Yeşim Tükel