JINHA

SÊRT – Women in the Kurdish city of Siirt, protesting two Turkish policemen's abduction of two teenage girls and a spate of local femicides, overcame a police barricade yesterday to continue their march.

"If women are free, the world will shake," chanted women as police finally lifted the barricade after women's sit-in in the middle of a main thoroughfare, Tillo Avenue.

The women had withstood a heavy bout of rain and hail to continue the sit-in as they attempted to hold a march denouncing the state's cover-up of two policemen's abduction of Siirt teenage girls. Finally, after women spoke with the local governor, the police began to disperse. The women chanted slogans and resumed marching.

According to MüjdeBozan, speaking at the march, Siirt women are also concerned about the state's refusal to investigate the suspicious deaths of women in the province. Recently, local woman ElifDündar was alleged to have committed suicide by hanging herself after the long abuse of her husband. However, the bruises on her body were suspicious, said eyewitnesses. Elif'sfamily say she was killed.

When women from the march went to meet the governor, police physically and verbally abused HaticeSeviptekin, the local Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) candidate for Parliament, when she tried to pass through the barricade to the meeting. The HDP is running a woman-driven election campaign, with 48% female candidates.

"The police's behavior is a demonstration that the state and the government don't accept women's representation in politics," said Hatice. She noted that the state let through the local woman co-mayor, also supporting the march, who they saw as "legitimate," but would not let through a woman candidate for Parliament. However, women were still optimistic in spite of the police violence, saying this successful of an action was a first for the city's women.

"This is a big victory for Siirt and it won't stop," said Hatice, speaking of the march. "Now women will always be in the squares and in the streets, protesting the ruling power's silence in the face of cruelty against women."

(şö/fk/cm)