This is what a Feminist Looks Like...

Right after 8th March it was quite hard to resist not to share this video by Feminist Majority Foundation.

"I am a Feminist, and this is what a Feminist looks like..."

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Menstruation vs. Circumcision

Menstruation has become the main debate topic of many female writers recently... It all started with a psychologist woman that gave a quite big celebration party for her daughter’s first menstruation... This is a case which is not needed normally… But it is needed here…

Some called her she was a crème-le-crème woman… In fact she was a normal citizen, not very elegant at all. May be we can name her as an activist… She emphasised on the practise of the oppression on young woman by the menstruation and it worked quite well. This was an insult for the patriarchal society that is developed with/by/on men.

As we know in the very same country of Turkey; the circumcision is considered to be “the first main step to the manhood” and people make a huge festival out of it. It is also quite questionable step to the manhood! I did not call myself as a man after my circumcision for sure… I did not become a man with my circumcision, neither any girl by menstruation...

As a matter of fact good things can also happen in this country! I am very sure indeed… I still have the hope… That helps me to survive here…

That party is good as a first step, but not enough... I hope it can help the women of this country. There is the need indeed… The need for the women’s freedom… It will lead to the freedom of the men…

When we do not make huge ceremonies for any of those situations that leads to oppress... Everything will be better...

We will become just humans again...

I still have a hope about this crazy world...

22/10/2008
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Living a life of my own...
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*^"#+&*

Remembering Nazım Hikmet / Nazım Hikmet'i hatırlamak...

NAZIM HİKMET RAN

Happy Birthday Nazım! / Mutlu Yıllar Nazım!...

I LOVE MY COUNTRY

I love my country :
I have swung on its plane trees, I have stayed in its prisons.
Nothing can overcome my spleen
as the songs and tobacco of my country.

My country :
Bedreddin, Sinan, Yunus Emre and Sakarya,
lead domes and factory chimneys
are all the work of my people
who even hiding from themselves
smile under their drooping mustaches.

My country.
My country is so large :
it seems that it is endless to go around.
Edirné, Izmir, Ulukıshla, Marash, Trabzon, Erzurum.
I know the Erzurum plateau only in its songs
and I am ashamed
not to have crossed Tauruses even once
to go to the cotton pickers
in the south.

My country :
camels, train, Fords and sick donkeys,
poplar
willow
and red earth.

My country.
The trout which likes
pine forests, best freshwaters and the lakes
at the top of mountains,
and at least half a kilo,
with red reflections on its scaleless, silver skin
swims in the Abant lake of Bolu.

My country :
goats on the Ankara plain :
the sheen of blond, silky, long furs.
The fat plump hazelnuts of Giresun.
The fragrant red-cheeked apples of Amasya,
olive
fig
melon
and of all colours
bunches and bunches of grapes
and then the plough
and then the black ox
and then : ready to accept
everything
advanced, beautiful and good
with the joyous admiration of a child
my hard-working, honest, brave people
half hungry, half full
half slave...

tr. by Fuat Engin

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Nazim is a man of principles for me.

He believed in better world... A world of equality... A world of peace...

He was condemned of being a communist. He could not come back to his beautiful country. He was in love with his country indeed... He was a true patriot. The punishment of being away from his precious country was too harsh for him, but he did not give up his ideals.

He showed his mastermind in every small piece of sentence he wrote. He was a genius in literature, namely as a poet.

Long live Nazim... We will not forget you...

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Living a life of my own...
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