Women with Women: Solidarity through Monochrome

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The black and white reels of women are screaming not for validation but of the pain, they are tired of suffering shackled in the thousand year old patriarchy.

Over the last month, my Instagram feed was flooded with monochromatic pictures of women captioned challenge accepted, tailed with hashtags like women for women. One might end up thinking it to be another going with the trend challenge to divert the bored minds of humankind and to give them a simple reason to post and garner validation.

“The trend is still picking up with usage of the hashtag on Instagram doubling in the last day alone,” an Instagram spokeswoman said regarding the trend.

The challenge has circulated like a long transmission chain where every women is nominating at least one women to continue the trend with a small note of spreading positivity and standing in solidarity for the entire womankind. Celebrities from Eva Longoria to Anushka Sharma taking up the challenge only boosted its visibility.

But the roots of the challenge go far beneath to where the screams are stifled. We are talking about Middle East. Apparently the challenge started in Turkey to assert their dissent against the growing rates of femicide. It was fuelled with the killing of 27 year old Pinar Gutelkin by her ex-boyfriend. She was reportedly beaten and strangled to death by her ex, Cemal Metin Avci. He then torched her corpse in the garbage and covered it in concrete.

It had sparked outrage among the female activists as they continue rallying together to demand Government put legislation in place to protect women. On the contrary, the protestors are being met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Turkish Government have been time and again accused of doing little for the protection of the ‘other’ Gender, leaving out the protection of the basic rights of women.

Women in Turkey live in constant state of fear because if something happens to them there might be laws on paper to give them justice but they will never be implemented. They are drained of energy as they continue to fight for their basic rights instead of society ordering men to change. A proposed law that would allow men accused of having sex with girls who are under 18 to avoid punishment if they marry their victims, problems with alimony payments of divorced women reveals a pervasive and oppressive traditional masculine mind-set.

Women community is in simple words defenceless. They are given life sentences based on vague claims as they have no one willing to fight for them apart from themselves. Prison overcrowding has pushed some women prisoners to take shelter in male prisons. This has eventually led to sexual harassments that goes unnoticed. Frequent strip searches of women are conducted by male personnel. Incarceration during pregnancy is practised without any law. Illiteracy is five times more in Turkish women than in men.

As the society progresses for better, women have started to find their own voice in Turkey, a country based on tradition. That is why we say ‘violence against women’ is political violence. Gender equality is not a reality but women empowerment has grown past in years. Initiatives like the three-year program “Implementing Norms” and “Changing Minds” by United Nations in the Balkan region and Turkey fight to end violence and discrimination against women, giving particular attention to women belonging to the most disadvantaged groups.

Through the” More and Better Jobs For Women” project, the International Labour Organization (ILO) fights to create awareness about women’s employment opportunities. Developing women’s employment and creating decent work opportunities are some of the goals undertaken by the organization. By better serving the women of Turkey, the ILO hopes to increase the number of women employed in the labour force. “Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centres” provide prevention and protection services to survivors and monitor cases. They were put into service in 14 pilot cities in December 2012. The centres are now available in 41 cities

There is a decreasing trend in physical and sexual violence against women (from 42 per cent in 2008 to 38 per cent in 2014), according to the National Domestic Violence against Women Research conducted by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies

However the progress is still slow. Two out of five women are exposed to physical and sexual violence at least once in a lifetime. According to the same research, early and forced marriage is still practiced in open which stands as a major obstacle in the dusty path to achieving respect.

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What we can hope is that the commitments made to strengthen women’s rights on the international agendas should not be left solely on paper and we must decisively take tangible steps to translate this into practice. Women in Turkey are fighting since the Ottoman times and the only thing they pin their hope on is that “struggle always wins”. 

Back in 2016, this challenge was also used to spread cancer awareness.

Like every trend receives its fair share of criticism, the challenge faced backlash as many feminists around the world questioned how glamorous pictures in an oversized denim shirt and shorts flaunting luscious locks serves the purpose. For some the cause of the campaign is really lost.

If this ‘movement’ featured trans women or differently abled women, or showcased female businesses or accomplishments or women in history, it would make more sense.

Had we posted portraits of the women who inspired us, it would be a little bit more in line with what this is trying to accomplish.

Therefore, many initiated a different take on the challenge by incorporating racial injustice. pictures of late African American Breonna Taylor who was shot dead by Louisville police department officers in march this year to bring some sense to the challenge swayed far away from its real cause. A cause that made police departments to ban no-knock warrants which allow the police to forcibly enter people’s homes to search them without warning.

Late at night, police barged into her home and fired shots which struck her. She lay there for five minutes struggling for her breath before she died while she got no medical attention. The police failed to find the illegal drugs they thought she was hiding in her apartment while they certainly succeeded to shatter the big dreams she had seen of establishing a career in medical field with their shots. The cause that fired the responsible policemen in charge and made FBI take up the investigation. The cause that cleared how Breonna was shot eight times even when police claimed there were no injuries. The cause that put forth the grim reality of the racist nature of the police force in the most advanced first world country. The cause which compelled to reopen many such unjust cases of oppression on the citizens of colour.

Solidarity should not be just a word to put on our social media handles for staying relevant. It is evident that we stand up against the atrocities on women even when it is not making headlines. Black lives should matter to one and all even after protests are silenced. Only then will the cause be successful.

Featured Image Credits: Library of Congress on Unsplash