Some debates in Turkey never change.
The economic crisis is deepening, and women are in the spotlight.
Poverty is on the rise, and women are in the spotlight.
Unemployment is rising, and women are in the spotlight.
Children are growing up in poverty, and women are being talked about.
It’s as if the way women live, work, and dress were at the heart of all this country’s problems…
But the truth lies elsewhere.
The truth lies with the worker who can’t make ends meet.
The truth lies in the workers who are being exploited more and more with each passing day.
The reality lies in the transfer of public resources to capital.
The truth lies in the gradual erosion of secularism.
However, instead of discussing all of this, women’s lives are being turned into a constant arena of control and interference.
The statements made over the years by Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü—known to the public as “Cübbeli Ahmet”—regarding women’s participation in the workforce, their role in society, and gender relations are no exception to this pattern.
Because the issue here isn't just about one person's words.
The problem lies in the very mindset that refuses to view women as equal and free members of society.
According to this mindset, women should not work.
In this mindset, women should not be visible.
According to this mindset, women should not make decisions.
According to this mindset, women should not have a say in their own lives.
Because the free woman is one of the most powerful social realities that stands in opposition to the order of obedience.
This is exactly what reactionary forces fear.
He is afraid of women working.
He's afraid of women reading.
He's afraid of what women think.
He is afraid of women organizing.
He is afraid of women demanding equality.
Because when a woman becomes free, it is not just one woman who becomes free.
A home changes.
A neighborhood changes.
A workplace changes.
A society begins to change.
For this reason, every reactionary intervention targeting women is, in fact, an intervention directed against the possibility of social transformation.
Today, millions of women set out at the first light of dawn.
He's going to the factories.
He's going to the workshops.
He goes to hospitals.
He's going to schools.
He's going to the fields.
He's going to the offices.
And even though she often does the same work as men, she is paid less.
He works under more precarious conditions.
He is under even more pressure.
On top of that, when he gets home, a second shift begins.
Childcare.
Household chores.
Elderly care.
Invisible labor.
Uncompensated labor.
The labor upon which society is built, yet which is often not even mentioned.
That is precisely why every statement targeting women’s working lives is more than just an expression of an idea.
It is a political stance aimed at women's economic independence.
Because economic independence is one of the fundamental prerequisites for freedom.
A woman who is made economically dependent is easier to control.
It's easier to silence.
They are forced to submit more easily.
The boundaries imposed on women by reactionary forces and the expectations of the capitalist system regarding women’s labor often converge.
Someone wants cheap labor.
The other is obedience.
Someone wants silence.
The other is surrender.
Some people thrive on insecurity.
The other is due to inequality.
That is why women’s struggle for freedom is also a struggle for workers’ rights.
It is also a struggle for secularism.
It is also a struggle for equal citizenship.
Years ago, when Nazım Hikmet wrote about the women of his homeland, he was describing not their adornments but their burdens.
Because the women of this country were not people on the margins of life.
It was life itself.
It was also that woman walking along the village road.
The woman who is rolling tobacco, too.
And the woman carrying her child on her back.
The woman who went to the factory, too.
The women in that poem were not merely the women of a particular era.
They were the women of today.
Those same hands continue to produce even today.
Even today, those same shoulders continue to carry the weight of life.
Today, these same women continue to resist poverty, exploitation, and inequality.
But now there are women who don’t just carry—they speak out.
There are women who are not just workers, but who are also demanding their rights.
There are women who aren’t just trying to survive, but who want to change their lives.
That's where the real trouble begins.
Because reactionary ideology can call on women to make sacrifices.
He might call Sabra.
It can call for silence.
But he is helpless in the face of a woman who demands equality.
Because once the idea of equality takes hold in society, it is impossible to reverse it.
Those who are opening up the debate on women’s right to work today are defending the ghosts of the past, not the world of tomorrow.
Those who question women’s place in public life today represent the past, not the future.
History, however, does not flow backward.
The struggle for women's freedom is not slowing down either.
Because the women of this country do more than just bear the burdens of life.
He is rebuilding his life.
And those who shape life will, sooner or later, shape the future as well.
That is the reason behind all this reactionary anger.
They aren't afraid of women.
They are afraid of the equal and free future that women will build.