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May has proved itself to be a significant month in several ways in Turkey
in regard to women’s agenda. I will present the thumbnails only and hope
you will visit the websites for further details and possible future contacts.
May 6-16 marked the dates for the 7th Flying Broom International Women’s
Film Festival, which is the only women’s film festival in Turkey since
1998. The press conference was held in Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in
Ankara where the program, sponsorships, and the mission statement were introduced
to media. This year’s “women of the festival” were announced
as Catherine Breillard, Gurinder Chadha, Doris Dorrie, Katharine Hepburn, Lotte
Reiniger, and Marie Trintignant. Movies by 64 women directors from 28 countries
were shown in the festival this year. You can visit the website for a closer
look at http://www.ucansupurge.org/newhtml/english/index.php
You can also get information about the regulations, the submission deadlines
for next year’s competition and awards. The objective of the festival
is to introduce the native and foreigner women directors from all over the world
to the Turkish audience, to reconsider the cinema through a feminist perspective
as well as to create a sphere for the discussion about women’s problems
and experiences reflected in the cinema. One of the highlights for this year
was Yesim Ustaoglu’s new movie “Waiting For the Clouds”. Ustaoglu,
a female director from Turkey, who received international recognition with her
movie “Journey to the Sun”, decided to have her new movie’s
Turkish premiere in the 7th Flying Broom. She continues to scratch the controversial
issues in recent Turkish history regarding minority conflicts and displacements.
The second part of my report will shortly introduce two co-partners that organized
a symposium on gender issues: Bilgi University and Lambda-Istanbul. In the recent
years, Bilgi University stands out among the other private universities in Turkey
with its cultural and academic organizations on women and gender in the broadest
sense. Lambda-Istanbul is the largest queer liberation group in Turkey. It was
formed by a small number of gays and lesbians as a result of a police ban on
Christopher Street Day celebrations in Turkey in 1993. Since then, Lambda-Istanbul
has grown in membership and aims to raise its voice on behalf of the gay communities
in Istanbul. Bilgi University and Lambda-Istanbul hosted “Symposium on
Understanding Gender Identities and Sexual Orientations in Turkey” at
Kustepe Campus in 7-8 May 2004. Among the titles of the presentations were:
"Did Homosexuality Exist in the Ottoman society, too?" : Ottoman Sexuality
in the Orientalist Discourse, “Perception of Body in Sexual Identities
and Orientations”, “Revolt Against Sexual Sin With Marquis de Sade”,
“Sexual Identity and Orientation in the Jurisprudence of the European
Court of Human Rights”. It was an interdisciplinary symposium in every
sense and succeeded in bringing scholars and activists together.
The last but not the least topic to mention in May was the Constitutional amendment
package prepared within the framework of adjustment to the European Union (EU).
Although under the amendment, expression saying ''woman and man
have equal rights'' was added to the Constitution's Article 10 on ''Equality
Before the Law'', this was not at all sufficient for the women groups and NGOs
which insisted and worked hard to include a clause allowing affirmative action
for women. The ''positive discrimination'', which CHP (Republican People's Party;
please note that Republican has the opposite connotation in Turkey unlike in
the U.S) wanted for women, was not accepted. Calls to amend in favor of positive
discrimination for women provoked much debate, as the ruling Party (AKP) government
of Prime Minister Erdogan rejected calls from women's groups to include a clause
allowing affirmative action for women. Professor Turkan Saylan, the head of
the Modern Life Support Association (CYDD), argues that the amendment will not
improve the lot of women unless efforts are made to make equality a reality
through positive discrimination. She states that since there are still illiterate
females in Turkey, and one third of the girls have not been schooled and occasional
murders continue in the name of honor in the southeastern Anatolia, the article
will not create equality between men and women. According to Ece Oztan, a research
assistant at YTU, Turkey appears to be a country where significant deficiencies
in positive discrimination policies have been observed. It will be curious to
follow up the debates and the future developments in regard to this issue since
current Turkish government seems determined to make Turkey a part of the European
Union more than the other governments so far, despite of its agenda showed by
its Islamic aspirations.
Compiled by Ozlem Ezer