EPISODE 4: WOMEN!
DENIZ AKKAYA
Today more than ever, the world needs women’s voice and strength. All societies, religions, and every environment for centuries despised women but, they will make their voice heard fearlessly this time with the coming Age of Aquarius, and this will be the beginning of a much better world.
On Thursday, October 22nd, the Polish constitutional court passed an almost complete abortion ban. According to the decision, abortion can only be done in cases where rape, incest cases, or the mother’s health are at risk. 98% of legal abortions in Poland last year were done in cases of defective fetus. However, this will no longer be possible under the new decision. Following this decision on Thursday, tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday in defiance of the country’s strict coronavirus restrictions, and in Warsaw police clashed with the public during protests. Protests have been going on for almost 3 weeks in Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw, and Krakow.
Poland, which currently has the strictest abortion laws in the EU, has less than 2000 legal abortions every year. But women’s groups estimate that as many as 200,000 abortions have been done either illegally or abroad. So, making abortion illegal doesn’t make it go away. In countries with limited access to abortion, there are more dead women, not fewer dead babies. All over the world, 5-13% of maternal deaths are caused by illegal “under the stairs” abortion practices. Anti-abortion is not about caring for the baby, it’s about trivializing women. Anti-abortion advocates have only one philosophy: criminalizing the female body. The sole purpose of anti-abortion laws is to bring women’s sexuality under state control harshly and brutally. Poland is also one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. However, opinion polls show that there are more who are against abortion laws. The women also say that the reasons for the protest lie beyond the abortion laws are about the influence of the Catholic church on the Polish state. It has been recorded that there are 430,000 protesters on the streets in Poland, which has witnessed the largest popular uprising since the 1980s. Protests continue not only in big cities but also in small towns and villages. This ban, a new attack on reproductive rights, prompted Gen Z to join the protests. Women not only filled the streets but also entered Roman Catholic churches and disrupted the service, showing how serious they were and that only they could dominate their bodies!
A few months before Poland, we see a similar unrest in Turkey. Following the murder of Pinar Gultekin, protests were held in many cities of the country, with the government announcing that it was considering withdrawing from an international convention protecting women against violence. The groups that wanted to draw attention to the Istanbul Convention and femicides encouraged everyone to share their black and white photos to draw attention to the issue and the movement quickly became global. Turkish conservative media accuse the Istanbul Convention of harming family values. The Convention is the first set of legally binding principles defined as “a comprehensive legal framework and approach to combating violence against women” that focuses on preventing domestic violence, protecting victims, and prosecuting perpetrators as they deserve. In the first years of its rule, the AKP (The Justice and Development Party) was the first signatory of the 2011 European “Istanbul Convention”. In recent years, however, critics have accused the government of not implementing the agreement to strengthen the ruling party’s religious and conservative base.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where men can get away with sexual assault and harassment. It’s by no means coincidence that government officials, presidents, and religious authorities around the world have such accusations. This is a cycle: a cycle consisting of men who want to chain the female body and protecting, watching over each other. Women being able to “choose” about anything is a terrible thing for them. Strict abortion laws and murders of women are also political and violations of human rights. Our only wish from the Aquarius age is that it brings along a system in which every living thing can exist. But even if it doesn’t, if women and Gen Z join forces, we’re sure they could even conquer the world! Stay tuned for Episode 5.
