JINHA

ANKARA – The women's coordinating body of Turkey's left party HDP says they plan to struggle in the streets and in the Parliament to found a Ministry of Women in Turkey.

The ministry currently responsible for women's issues in Turkey, the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, has earned the revulsion of women's groups across the country. The Ministry, founded by the right-wing AKP in 2011, has been critiqued for taking no effective action against violence against women and addressing women only as mothers. After 20-year-old university student Özgecan Aslan's rape and killing sparked protests against femicide across Turkey, women's groups called for Minister Ayşegül İslam to resign, as rates of femicide have skyrocketed in recent years.

One of the major factors that sent Turkey's left party HDP into Parliament during Turkey's June 7 election was its advocacy for an end to violence against women, the involvement of women in politics and protections for women's labor. The party implements gender parity policies, which it says should become standard for all Turkish governmental bodies. One of the main planks of the party's Women's Elections Manifesto (a document developed autonomously by women in the party) was the call for a Ministry of Women to replace the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

The party's women's coordinating body started off a statement following the swearing-in of the party's newly elected representatives on a note of regret. They noted that even if the party has the highest rate of women representatives of any party in the Parliament (40%), that rate should be at least 50%. The party says that now it is time for its gender related policies to come to life.

"For this, we are calling on all women's organizations to join the struggle in the streets as well as in building our parliamentary work," said the HDP Women's Coordination. "In order to really turn the Parliament into a Parliament of the peoples and a Parliament of women, it's clear that we need to bring the democratic unity we reached in the elections campaign to a higher level."

(gc/cm)