On yet another 8 March Women's Day we will utter great words and make great promises in our most enthusiastic and audacious manner. Voices will rise from every medium in the face of the irreplaceable and undeniable reality of the place our women hold in our lives. We will broadcast advertisements. We will put up posters and organize panels. On 8 March, the “International Women's Day”, we will sanctify her as though it were an honour bestowed upon woman, and thus we will wake up on the morning of 9 March with the supposed peace of mind of having done our duty. Well, will anything really change afterwards? On the morning of 9 March, will our women be able to attain the care, sincerity and respect they deserve, a decisive position within society, relationships free of danger and violence, positions equal to men in working life, and the jobs they will obtain in keeping with their talents and their education?
On the morning of 9 March, will the depression they fall into in the face of the mobbing they endure while struggling for their careers in the environments where they work, and the difficult, sleepless nights they will live through without letting it show in their home life, have come to an end? Will the struggle they wage to protect their children in the face of the violence they suffer from their husbands, simply so that their family life is not disrupted, come to an end?
On the morning of 9 March, will we begin to see woman not as an object of one sex but as a being and a sacred trust in whom life begins? Not as nefs (carnal desire) but as nefes (breath) — when will we begin to value her?
How much longer will we turn a blind eye to the decayed mentality that, by estranging woman from her own identity and nature, deprives her of being the cornerstone of the family and of the attribute of motherhood while presenting her as if it had taken her under a shield of protection against the dangers listed above, shattering both them and our family lives?
In Islamic culture the phenomenon of woman is at the forefront, just as it is in Turkish culture. We see the finest example of this in the age of our Prophet (peace be upon him) as well. Likewise our holy book, the Holy Qur'an, is adorned with verses that always watch over woman, that make her the cornerstone of society and give her priority. Struggling against views that argue the opposite of this must be our social obligation.
Woman and man are not two separate beings, but two parts of a whole. They are our companions on the road. They are our mothers, our wives, our sisters and our children, with whom we walk together at every level of society and in every field, with whom we face life together. Who said that a woman cannot handle more than one task at the same time; at home they are our mother or the mother of our children, our friend, our confidante, our sister. In working life they are our colleague, our superior or our employer. From art to culture, from science to trade, from politics to diplomacy, in every field they are our other half, with whom we build and mend life together. Just as we accept the truth of the proverb “it is the female bird that builds the nest” when we found our families, so too, when we found, mend and renew our institutions, we must see how everywhere touched by “a woman's hand” becomes an occasion for success.
If one of the parts that complete a whole is missing, it is not possible to complete the road and we always remain incomplete. For this reason we must read well the perspective of Turkish and Islamic civilization on woman and her social role. We must know well the Turkish woman and her strength. We must see woman not as a flower, but as the soil itself. In the end, it is again women who raise the men of a society. The more knowledgeable, self-confident, inwardly serene and at peace with their essence we leave them, the more liveable the world of the future will be. Otherwise, “every tear that falls from women's eyes flows into the soil as poison”. Our women seek not an owner, but a companion on the road. As long as we stand by them and value their words, we will take pride in the magnificent works that will emerge from the qualities by which the two sexes complete each other, and we will pass these on with pride to the next generation. Their productivity is like the fertility of the soil. Giving such a value the care and respect it deserves saves a society in the future from being tested by social and cultural famine. Otherwise we will have failed to keep the promise we made to our women. And the ornate sentences we utter on 8 March will lose their validity. Let us allow our women to speak, to tell their story and to have words of their own to say. “Because whenever a woman falls silent even though she has much to say, the man has by then lost all his chances”.
With our wish that 8 March World Women's Day will be a milestone for the creation of the conditions our women deserve, we say WE ARE HERE to stand by them and support them all the way.