Tag Archives: Turkey

The Campus Witches in Turkey: “Menstrual Products Are Essential”

Turkish women protesting in pink witch hats with symbolic blood-stained cloth

Laurie and Debbie say:

Elmas Topcii, writing at DW, a German news site, brings us the story of the Campus Witches, a group of extremely brave women in Izmir, Turkey, who are focusing on a particular effect of the country’s extreme inflation: tampons and sanitary pads.

The Witches, who wear bright pink witch hats, have been demonstrating around issues that affect girls and women, primarily in university and college settings.

In recent months, they have particularly campaigned against the drastic rise of the cost of sanitary products and called for the 18% tax on such items to be abolished. They say that since menstruation is natural, sanitary products are not a luxury but essential.

Therefore, they think they should be provided for free by the state. In the meantime, they have stepped up initiatives such as solidarity boxes in women’s toilets and other public spaces where people can donate tampons and pads for those who cannot afford them.

To put this in context, sanitary products are subject to sales tax in vast swaths of the world. Leah Rodriguez wrote about this for Global Citizen last June. Her article is rich with horrifying statistics:

Period products are subject to a state sales tax in 30 of the 50 US states despite efforts to ban the tax country-wide.  

Across the European Union, most countries are not allowed to create zero-rated value-added taxes on period products and have a 5% minimum tampon tax. The tampon tax is as high as 20% in 10 member countries but it will be eliminated across the member states in 2022. However, some countries in the EU have managed to reduce or eliminate the tampon tax sooner.

According to Rodriguez, this is an international cause, and her article demonstrates that it is needed in much of the world. Nonetheless, demonstrating about the cost of menstruation in Turkey is different from doing the same thing in Germany or many parts of the United States. Tolcii’s article about the Turkish protestors says “For many of their compatriots, the subject of menstruation remains taboo.” Making taboo subjects public is risky, and takes substantial courage. Reclaiming the history of witches, who were persecuted in Europe, often for supporting women’s health and women’s needs, may well be one source of the bravery the Campus Witches show whenever they bring menstruation into the public eye.

Irmak Sarac, a gynecologist and honorary member of the Turkish Medical Association, told ANKA that conditions for female seasonal agricultural laborers was untenable. “We are hearing that women are taking leaves and putting clean earth on them to absorb their menstrual blood,” she said. She too was of the opinion that the state should provide sanitary products for free.

Rodriguez opens her article with this flat statement:

We cannot end extreme poverty if people who menstruate around the world, from Ethiopia to the United States, continue to lack access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities, and/or, waste management.

The Campus Witches are part of a worldwide movement; their victory (if it happens) will have significant consequences both for individual Turkish people who menstruate and for the greater issue.

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Women Going Wild

Laurie and Debbie say:

Turkey has been having a lot of trouble with fan violence at and after soccer matches, and one of the solutions being tried is all-woman audiences.

Travis at Think Progress shared this brief video of a local Turkish soccer game attended by some 40,000 women and children, along with some thoughts about it:

The most important takeaway from the game, however, wasn’t that female sports fans are less violent than their male counterparts. It’s that they’re just as passionate.

In international soccer, there are especially large barriers to women’s equal participation as fans or players. The Brazilian men’s national team is the pride of the country, but the women’s team barely receives enough funding to train. In Iran, women are banned not just from attending men’s matches, but from watching national broadcasts of them as well. FIFA, the sport’s international governing body, banned the Iranian women’s team from an Olympic qualifier because its members refused to play without wearing headscarves.

But even when countries and cultures make it harder for women to be fans and players, it’s amazing to see how female athletes and sports fans are pushing for equality. Brazil’s World Cup team narrowly lost to the well-funded American side in the quarterfinals of this year’s tournament. Iranian women risk severe punishment by dressing up as men to attend soccer matches there.

It’s a truism in the disability activist world that whatever you do to make the world more accessible for disabled people ends up benefiting some group you didn’t expect: curb cuts for wheelchairs help parents (and nannies) with strollers, they help businesspeople with rolling suitcases, etc., etc.

Gender segregation has a long history of being either an ugly use of privilege (like the Bohemian Club) or a response to misuse of privilege (as seen in various forms of feminist separatism). In this case, however, reducing violence is a goal and excluding men is a strategy. From a violence-prevention point of view, the strategy worked. And the unexpected benefit is how much passionate fun everyone is having. You don’t have to be a soccer fan to want to be there.