Lengths of barley

Sometimes this is how I feel. In this country, we think that we are doing a lot, we are discussing a lot, but when we look back, we discover that not much has actually been achieved.

Maybe I am a little bit impatient and want to live in a country that has solved some basic problems, especially the ones related to democracy, freedom of expression, minority rights and gender issues.

Especially when it comes to gender issues, the improvements sometimes sound to me as meager as the length of a spike of barley. I know social transformations take a long time, it is not easy to solve problems within a short period of time and there are many reasons for being pessimistic sometimes. But it does not mean that nice things are not happening.

Dealing with gender issues requires patient efforts; creating a solution for them means weaving the solution knot by knot. There is a project in Turkey that is doing this, the Human Rights Education Program for Women (KİHEP).

 The program is an initiative of Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR-New Ways) together with the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK).

The chairwoman of the WWHR-New Ways, Pınar İlkkaracan, said that in the early 1990s, they thought that there were a lot of shortcomings in the laws regarding gender equality but also that women were not aware of their rights, so they decided to implement an awareness campaign. At the beginning, they were trying to do it with the limited abilities of their association, but later the SHÇEK agreed to cooperate, and they were able to educate

7,500 women about their rights.

During workshops at “society centers” provided by the SHÇEK, women learn some basic things; they learn about their legal rights as citizens, the places that they can go to get help for different problems and what to do when they are victims of violence.

They are also learning how to support each other. They question male-dominant culture in this 16-week training program.

 I had a chance to meet some of those women; one of the most surprising was Zozan Özgökçe from Van, also the founder of the Van Women's Association (VAKAD).

 She said that before joining this training program, she defended the ideas of male-dominant culture, thinking that after getting married it was natural for a woman to obey her husband's wishes in every field of life. But after the training, she changed her mind, and together with some friends established VAKAD, a very active women's association in eastern Anatolia. VAKAD has even managed to establish a shelter in the city for women who are seeking asylum.

Özgökçe and VAKAD are not the only example. According to KİHEP records, after offering training on women's human rights in 12 different cities, 17 new women's associations were established, and they are actively working to promote gender awareness and equality.

Women of different ages, social classes and educational backgrounds participate in these programs and learn how to communicate effectively. Domestic violence automatically drops as women become effective communicators.

According to İlkkaracan, improving these skills increases women's self-esteem and makes them want to make their lives -- and their families' lives -- better.

 Feedback reports indicate that 63 percent of women who participate in KİHEP programs are no longer victims of domestic violence. Also, 54 percent have restarted their educational progress. Furthermore, 29 percent started to work for a salary, and 13 percent established their own businesses.

 İlkkaracan and other KİHEP volunteers believe that while they may have been able to reach only 7,500 women, those women were able to reach other women and transfer their new knowledge and experience to the others.

 Today is Sunday, and I want to see the full half of the glass, yet there is a very long way that Turkey has to travel for gender equality. It definitely does not mean, though, that the road traversed is just the length of a spike of barley.