Dozens of protesters gathered to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women were arrested in Istanbul on Friday, AFP noted.
The rally convened in the emblematic Taksim square, which had not been authorized, was prevented from the end of the afternoon by the establishment of barriers and grids blocking the streets in a vast perimeter starting on the banks of the Bosphorus, and by an impressive deployment of riot police.
At the call of the "
November 25 platform
", a coalition of feminist movements, the demonstrators gathered by the hundreds, sometimes veiled, sang in Turkish and in Kurdish language, "
Woman, Life, Freedom
", taking up the slogan Iranian women fighting against the mullahs' regime.
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Blocked by a police cordon below Taksim Square, a group of activists unfurled a banner in front of the police claiming: "
For our freedom we will not remain silent, we do not give up the course of our lives, we do not bend not in the face of patriarchal violence
”.
Other banners called for the refusal of "
domestic slavery
" or: "
Bars for murderers, not for women!"
".
“
The police who do not intervene against the perpetrators of violence against women have closed all the streets leading to Taksim in the name of security
,” protested Yesim Tukel, a member of the November 25 platform.
“
We are not afraid of this violence: we are here to say that we will not submit and we will not be silent, neither in front of the holy family, nor in front of the State
”, assured for his part another activist, Burcu Gulcubuk.
"
This country is ours, this world is ours, the 21st century is the century of women and nothing can change
it," she added.
Faced with a crackdown on most public gatherings, women and LGBT movements are the latest to call large protests in Turkey.