Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) held its conference with the motto, “We Talk about Our Resistance and Struggle Methods against Patriarchy on the 4^th and 5^th of December. “We should support whatever attacked by the state and men,” said Mizgîn Aksu, a member of the HDK Women’s Council.

ELİF AKGÜL

Istanbul - Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) held its conference with the motto, “We Talk about Our Resistance and Struggle Methods against Patriarchy on the 4th and 5th of December. After the conference, we spoke to Mizgîn Aksu, a member of the HDK Women’s Council, about the outcomes of the conference and their methods of struggle.

Stating that topics such as women's labor, women's poverty, violence, immigration, and patriarchy were discussed in the two-day conference, Mizgîn Aksu said that the members of the Kurdish women's movement, socialist feminists, and individual women participated in the conference, “Each of organizations received an outcome according to their struggle method and interpretation.” “There is total poverty due to neoliberal policies, but the feminization of poverty is also an important part of it,” Mizgîn Aksu said that women are directly affected by poverty due to their invisible labor.

“Women discussed the dimension of male violence”

Stating that violence was one of the most prominent topics of the conference, Mizgîn Aksu emphasized that the dimensions of male and state violence were discussed during the conference. “Women are subjected to domestic violence and community pressure. They don’t only face male violence but also the violence of society. Women have been subjected to psychological, economic violence and street harassment. They may be subjected to violence by a man they don’t know while walking the streets,” she told us.

“There is a masculinity that loses in the world”

“There is a masculinity that loses both in Turkey and in the world,” Mizgîn Aksu said, “There is masculinity withdrawn from its own powers, of its privileges, men lose their power and they are aware of this. For this reason, they inflict violence. They want to regain their power but women resist. Women saying “No” to them are subjected to violence. All men see women as an enemy because they are afraid of women.”

“We should support whatever attacked by the state and men,” Mizgîn Aksu said, “Capitalism needs women giving birth to children because it needs people to use in labor and wars, but women are now objecting to this.”

“Special war policies carried out in Kurdistan affect women”

The special war policies carried out in Kurdistan affect not only women living there but also all women, Mizgîn Aksu said, “The war policies carried out there affect all women. Militarism feeds itself from there. While an attack in Kurdistan provides incredible comfort to the men there, they later go to Istanbul and inflict violence there. For this reason, the special war policies affect all women in Turkey.”

Mizgîn Aksu stated that women’s movements become a role model for all social movements, “Women’s movements act jointly when they face a problem. We, as women, should come together more. We should share our struggle methods with each other and we must determine our roadmap together.”