Saliha Aydeniz, co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) spoke at the 8 March International Women’s Day march in Diyarbakır (Amed).
The 8 March International Women’s Day rally, organised by the Dicle Amed Women’s Platform (DAKP), ran under the slogan “We defend life against the massacre of women and freedom against isolation”, and gave voice to many political activists and female politicans.
Saliha Aydeniz, along with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Young Women Coordination, the Progressive Women’s Assembly, the Rosa Women’s Association, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and HDP Diyarbakır MPs Remziye Tosun, Semra Güzel, Dersim Dağ participated in the march.
Speaking on behalf of the organisation committee, Songül Kapancı noted that they overcome the obstacles, ”We are strong together. We are here, we are in solidarity, we are on the path for a free life. Today, once again, we say we are defending life against war and freedom against slavery”, she said.
‘We will not give up our demand for the end of isolation’
DBP co-chair Saliha Aydeniz also took the stage and shared the resistance and solidarity message on behalf of her party. Aydeniz urged women not to give up the struggle against oppression.
“We will not give up our demand for the end of isolation. We will shield ourselves against the isolation on Imralı, just as resisters shielded themselves against ISIS”, she said.
Greetings to the jailed woman politicians
Aydeniz greeted the jailed women politicians. ”Greetings to women who have been imprisoned for defending equal representation, freedom and equality”, she said.
Aydeniz saluted Ayşe Gökkan, Leyla Güven, Figen Yüksekdağ, Gültan Kışanak, Sabahat Tuncel and all other woman politicians in prisons. ”We know you are here with us, on these streets. No matter how much they ignore us, all women today are crying out for freedom and independence against isolation”, she said.
‘We will keep on fighting’
Emphasising that the women of the world resisted against the exploitation of female labour, Aydeniz noted that the gains achieved by women are targeted by fascist governments.
“We will not give up on the Istanbul Convention”, she said. “We will not give up equal rights of representation. For this reason, we will continue to fight for our rights. We are faced with a government that arrested women the day after the announcement of human rights action plan”, she said.
“Today, because they are afraid of women’s resistance, they carry out political operations. Women will change the world. We will get rid of these anti-Kurdish policies. We will raise the struggle for freedom against fascism, we will expand our rebellion. We will keep on fighting against rape, murder and pressure on women”.
