Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality has laid the foundation stone for the Mahabad Women’s Life Centre in Kayapınar district, which will support women’s social, cultural and vocational development. Co-Mayor Serra Bucak said they would continue to expand women-focused services in line with the “Women’s City” vision, stressing that the centre will contribute to women’s empowerment and to strengthening social equality.
The Department of Technical Affairs (Public Works) held the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mahabad Women’s Life Centre, which will be built on a 1,105-square-metre site in the Fırat neighbourhood of Kayapınar district. Attending the ceremony were DBB Co-Mayor Serra Bucak, members of the DBB Municipal Council, co-mayors of district municipalities, DBB Secretary General Serdar Bakıroğlu, Deputy Secretaries General Zerin Türk and Aziz Özdoğan, and department heads.
Co-Mayor Bucak: We are breaking ground during a meaningful week
In her remarks, Co-Mayor Bucak said they are going through an intensive period due to 8 March, International Working Women’s Day, noting that civil society organisations, local authorities and women’s organisations have prepared a wide range of events and programmes. Drawing attention to the spirit of resistance associated with 8 March, she underlined the importance of this struggle evolving into an organised women’s movement. She added that they felt great happiness and pride in laying the foundation for the Mahabad Women’s Life Centre—whose infrastructure preparations have been ongoing for a long time—during such a meaningful week.
‘We have activated the Çermik Women’s Life Centre’
Recalling that Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality already has women’s life centres in Sur, Lalebey, Ben û Sen, Quça, Yeniköy and Çermik, Co-Mayor Bucak said they have also recently brought the Çermik Women’s Life Centre into active operation. She continued:
“These Women’s Life Centres are among our most important spaces—places we moved quickly to establish after we were elected, where we began work on areas of social reproduction, vocational activities, and programmes to raise women’s awareness and gender consciousness. Today, together, we will lay the foundation for the Mahabad Women’s Life Centre, which will be the seventh.”
‘Women’s Life Centres are vital spaces’
Co-Mayor Serra Bucak said Women’s Life Centres are vital spaces where vocational training is provided and where work is carried out to raise women’s awareness and strengthen gender equality consciousness. She continued:
“In Çermik, we brought a municipal building of ours into active use. We completed the construction process and finalised the works. In Çermik, we employed women living in Çermik and Ergani. There, we run women’s courses and our Women’s Counselling Centre. And since our community centre in Çermik is quite large, we are also seeking to continue with an approach that enables us to develop social programmes and social policy work for young people and children there as well.”
‘We will expand women-focused services’
Referring to the trustee period, during which they were deprived of spaces where social awareness, education and women’s initiatives could be carried out—citing land allocation and austerity measures as the stated reasons—Co-Mayor Bucak said:
“For us, what we do, in which neighbourhood, and in a neighbourhood with which social and economic status, really matters. Introducing and implementing work that will eliminate poverty and embed an egalitarian outlook in society is very important for us. But sometimes—just as with our Mahabad Women’s Life Centre here—knowing that this car park belongs to the Metropolitan Municipality and leaving it as it is would not have been right. For this reason, we felt the need to give this place a new function. Of course, Kayapınar Municipality’s district boundaries are very wide and extensive. Our colleagues already have Women’s Life Centres and Women’s Counselling Centres here. Yet the more services we can provide here, the more women we can reach, and the more young women we can reach, the more meaningful the scope of this work will be.”
‘We declared Diyarbakır a women’s city’
Recalling that they have declared Diyarbakır a “women’s city”, Co-Mayor Serra Bucak said they will continue to deliver services aligned with this vision—focusing on women’s policies, women’s struggle, and women’s needs.
Foundation laid for the centre
Following the remarks, Co-Mayor Bucak and accompanying officials pressed the button to carry out the groundbreaking ceremony.
A multi-purpose centre
The Mahabad Women’s Life Centre will include a cafeteria, children’s playroom, trainers’ room, psychological counselling room, coordinator’s room, foyer and exhibition area, a mini cinema, sculpture classroom, photography classroom, art classroom, dance hall, and a fitness hall. The Women’s Life Centre is planned to be completed and opened to the public within four months.
