Speaking at a Women’s Meeting organised by Sur Municipality, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Serra Bucak said: “We want to establish a mechanism in which women have a say, are equally represented and are more visible.”

Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Serra Bucak took part in the meeting organised by Sur Municipality at Teknokent in the Sur district, held as part of the 25 November International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Co-Mayor Bucak: We will stop violence together

In her speech at the meeting, Co-Mayor Bucak underlined the importance of women’s meetings and stated that November and March are two months in which women’s ideas, voices and solidarity come to the fore around 25 November and 8 March, International Women’s Day.

Emphasising that November and March are important months, Co-Mayor Bucak continued:

“For us, these two months are when we extend and make more visible all our women’s meetings in neighbourhoods and villages. But it is not right to limit ourselves to this. It does not feel right to us. In this sense, we launched a campaign last November under the slogan ‘Sözümüz Bitmedi, Şiddeti Hep Birlikte Durduracağız’ (‘Our word is not over – we will stop violence together’). With this November, we are in a new phase in which this campaign is continuing and in which its message and slogan have in fact been updated. In other words, as we build a democratic and free society, we will stop violence together.”

‘We have extended the campaign’

Noting that the campaign launched in November 2024 is ongoing, Bucak said:

“We have extended the campaign in order to reiterate, as women, that our word is not over. We want to grow this campaign together, both across all municipal service areas and in women’s autonomous spaces. In this city we are talking about multiplying solidarity centres that will listen to women’s problems and creating dedicated spaces where women can come together; we are talking about everything from the violence that women experience through to workplace harassment in the public sphere, to women’s participation in employment and the development and strengthening of the local economy. We are talking about local authorities playing an important role in all of this. In all these areas, we want to establish a mechanism in which women have a say, are equally represented and are more visible,” she said.

Women participating in the meeting shared their concrete proposals for taking a more active role in all areas of life and stressed the importance of putting these proposals into practice.