Nalin Öztekin / JINHA

ISTANBUL - Association for Struggle Against Sexual Violence started a social media campaign by saying, “Stop Sexism in Football” by using hashtags #FutbolHerkesİçindir (#FootballForEveryone) and #FootballPeople.

Fare Network, which has carried out anti-discrimination works in football, has begun an action week (Between October 6 and 20) in order to raise awareness against inequality in football by using hashtags #FutbolHerkesİçindir (#FootballForEveryone) and #FootballPeople. We spoke to members of the Association for Struggle Against Sexual Violence, one of the supporters of the campaign launched simultaneously in the world.

Football doesn’t mean to hatred

Şehlem Kaçar Sebik, one members of the Association for Struggle Against Sexual Violence, pointed out that gender inequality is a reality in every field of Turkey and continued: “Discrimination against us through feminization affects both LGBTİ people and women. Militaristic and patriarchal discourse emerges in football matches when the "other" team is demonized through feminization. Much of the time, this takes the discourse to a point of both discrimination and hate speech.”
Şehlem defines the action week as activities organized to point out the hate speeches, discrimination, homophobia and misogynism in the football. She said, “This network (Fare Network) operates in 45 countries and over is trying to unite the marginalized and discriminated groups with football.”

Deniz Nihan, another member of the association, stated that even in the US, is a number one of world ranking in female football; female players get less salary than men. The budget of football associations like FIFA for women is limited. Deniz underlined that the situation in Turkey is not different. Deniz said, “We learned that female team of Galatasaray was closed due to economic difficulties. Other teams also withdrew from leagues for the same reason.”

Deniz said many women, who want to choose football as profession, have faced economic and social problems and continued: “We won’t give up football by being told, “It is area for men”. We should raise our voice against discrimination and sexism in football.”

(ro/fk/gd)