WOMEN”S JOURNEY WITH HER CITIZEN IDENTITY IN THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
For the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of our Republic, we wanted to renew citizenship awareness by talking about the women rights that the Republic provided, thus drawing attention to the erosion of citizen identity as we enter our second century and to support women who could not benefit from their citizenship rights.
A symposium is organized at Konak Municipality Türkan Saylan Cultural Center on October 24, 2023 aiming to renew the citizenship awareness in the audience, thus increasing the awareness of women”s legal achievements during the Republic period, confronting the inability of women to use their legally acquired rights and raising the level of awareness in society to ensure gender equality, so that women can claim their rights.
President Nazlı Yolaç, Board Member Benal İnceer, Project Working Group Member Özge Yılmaz and Duygu Yurtseven started the project preparations on August 1, 2023 to determine the speakers and target audience.
It was decided to provide an integrated, systematic flow of information on the topics discussed from different legal, psychological and philosophical perspectives.
Club President, Atty. Nazlı Yolaç, under the title of “Women”s Right to Speak” delivered information that women”s rights were limited in the pre-Republic period and their achievements in the fields of women”s rights and the right to speak in family, society and politics in Republic period.
Club member, Clinical Psychologist Prof.Dr. Benal İnceer, under the title of “Being a Female Citizen of the Republic” delivered a speech covering to think once again about the gains of the Republic and Women”s Identity and to renew the awareness of citizenship, what the citizen identity brings to women.
Prof.Dr. Solmaz Zelyut delivered enlightening information in the field of philosophy on how gender inequality takes place in mentality and language established patterns under the title “Gender of Word”.
The target audience was determined as women living in areas with limited socioeconomic opportunities and women who take an active role in Izmir women”s associations in order to provide them with reminder information to organize similar trainings. Two of our scholars were among the participants.
A power point presentation under the title “Inspiring Women” of 50 Turkish women who have achieved pioneering successes and thus inspire what women can achieve, was prepared and supported by short stories and photographs of their successes before the symposium started.We tried to provide a pleasant environment with a suitable background music. There was a buffet of beverages. Some of them was sponsored by club member Özge Yılmaz. The rest was through the club bugdet. Club member Buket Karadeveci was responsible for providing beverages and delivering them to the venue and also transfers of participants with limited opportunities attending from long distances.
We donated three saplings for each speaker to the TEMA Foundation’s100th anniversary forest to express our gratitude for them. Sapling donation certificates were presented by the Club President Nazlı Yolaç who sponsored the donations. We preferred to donate saplings for a friendly environment.
FELT WORKSHOP
Conservation and Development of City Values Association of İzmir organizes activities for youngsters aged from 6 to 18, yielding their interest in science and knowledge. These activities take place in a primary school which belongs to Konak Municipality and which is restored by the association and named as KONTAK Innovative Learning Center. The center ensures that disadvantaged groups in the community benefit from these opportunities.
We collaborated with the Association, which offers a felt-working course for women to support them. The course program is scheduled for two hours a day and lasted four weeks starting on January 8, 2024 and ending on January 29, 2024. Club members Yıldız Belger and Bergün Kardeş trained the group teaching how to make the products from felt. Techniques for producing objects such as bags, glass and tablet cases and boutonnieres using felt were taught. By providing a hand skill, we supported 15 women to design and produce different products.
