As you know, International Women’s Day, 8th of March is a universal day that is defined by the United Nations. Based on the human rights, this day is spared for the improvement of the political and social awareness, celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of the women.

International Women’s Day, 8th of March first started to be celebrated in Turkey as “Working Women’s Day” in 1921. In 1975, “Turkey 1975, the Year of Women” congress was held as Turkey was also influenced by the “United Nations Decade for Women” program. After the military coup of September 12, 1980, no celebration was made for four years. Since 1984, every year “International Women’s Day” continued to be celebrated by various women’s organizations. However, this year, a ban has been imposed on celebrations in Istanbul and Izmir.

What is the situation of women in Turkey? About 50% of the population of Turkey is comprised of women. Of these women;
• About 24 million are primary school graduate.
• Again, about 2 million 200 thousand do not know how to read and write.
• In the five-year period between 2010 and 2015, about 233 thousand girls became a “child bride” in Turkey! Most of them became a child mum quickly.
• 1 in every 4 women are subject to physical violence.
• In 2016, 328 women were murdered!
• In the parliament, 81 of the 550 members of the parliament and only 2 of the 21 ministers are women.
• 3 of the 30 metropolitan mayors, 37 of the 1351 mayors are women.
• 1 of the 7 presidents of the higher judicial bodies, 17 of the 179 rectors, 1 of the 14 presidents of the employer organizations are women.
• With all these numbers, Turkey is 130th among 144 countries in gender equality.

Women took an action to organize an international women’s strike on March 8, 2017. The International Women’s Strike (IWS), which was organized as a type of grassroots action, proposes various types of actions that can be actualized in a local level against the social, legal, political, moral and verbal violence that the women are subject to. The first call was made in October 2016 and immediately had a broad repercussion. Now, in about 30 countries, women are preparing to welcome the 8th of March by organizing meetings, sharing the call texts they prepared, creating social media activities.

Argentine, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Ecuador, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, North Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Poland, Russia, Salvador, Scotland, North Korea, Sweden, Togo, Turkey, Uruguay and USA are in the list of the countries in which women are preparing for a strike.
If it succeeds, this strike can make history as the first woman’s strike on a global scale.