JINHA

ISTANBUL –Young women decided to start education programs in karate, tae kwan do and the art of close combat at the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Istanbul conference on self-defense.

"Self-defense for everything anti-woman" was the theme of the DBP Young Women's Assembly conference in the Bağcılar neighborhood. Women from Istanbul and surrounding regional universities attended the conference, where the walls were hung with photographs of Öcalan and YPJ fighters. Women discussed the role of the YPJ as a model of self-defense and an answer to the system that imprisons women.

Opening speaking SevimEr, the coordinator for the Istanbul organization of the Congress of Free Women (KJA), opened the conference by stressing that the upcoming June 7 election, when the opposition party Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) will attempt to pass the electoral threshold with a party list with total gender parity, was a crucial one for young women.

The conference was a space for organizing conversations, with young women deciding to form Young Women's Assemblies across the Istanbul region within the next month. They also made plans to open Young Women's Culture Centers and Associations, hold marches for Öcalan's freedom, and have a strong presence at the May 1 demonstrations.

"You make us so excited," said CemileAkgün, speaking to the young women on behalf of the Peace Mothers Assembly. "Young women are mothers' assurance and guarantee."

(dk-ed/mg/cm)