ÖZGÜR KAYA

İzmir- The lockdowns imposed in all countries around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak have affected everyone. Street musicians have also been affected by these lockdowns. Ruşan Dönder is a street musician. We talked to her about what kinds of problems the street musicians have faced.

Ruşen moved from Iğdır province to İzmir province four years ago. Her biggest goal at that time was to study at the conservatory and she achieved her goal. She is now the 3rd year student at the Conservatory Department of the Ege University. She is a student and makes her living by performing on the streets. She sings songs in Kurdish and Turkish. She tries to sing in her native language. She was inspired by Kurdish singers such as Aynur Doğan, Ciwan Haco, Mem Ararat, and by Turkish singers such as Zülfü Livaneli, Musa Eroğlu, and İlkay Akkaya.

“I needed money to make music”

Ruşen likes reading, painting, and taking care of her two dogs named Rıfkı and Pakize. She spends almost all of her time with them. I visited her home for the interview. She met me along with her dogs. I asked her how she started performing on the streets. She said she decided to perform on the streets while talking with her friends.

“I came together with my friends. We talked about performing on the streets and we thought we also could do it. We needed to buy several instruments to start. But we needed to struggle to buy them. We had to work to earn money. Then, slowly we started buying the instruments. We first performed on the streets of Konak (a district of İzmir). We were nervous and shy; we were worried about people’s reactions. My journey with performing on the streets began like that. I have performed on the streets for four years.”

“You cannot make Kurdish music”

Ruşen faced many difficulties. Performing on the streets was forbidden when she started to perform. Municipal police didn’t allow them to perform on the streets. She said that she was told, “You cannot make Kurdish music” by the municipal police officers and she was taken to a police station. She said she never forget this, “At that time, the municipality did not support musicians in any way.”

She is a student and makes her living

The municipality gave street musicians a card to perform on the streets, Ruşen said, “We are students and make our living by performing on the streets. The lockdowns have affected us very much because we don’t have another job. We don’t receive any financial supports. We go through a troublesome process. Many people are unemployed now and naturally, they cannot give money for our performance. We have been financially and emotionally affected by the pandemic.”

“They have to stay at home due to the pandemic”

Ruşen is so sad to be away from music. She said she met new people, talked to them but people have to stay at home due to the pandemic. “We do our best to reach people on the internet. I hope we will get through this process as soon as possible.”

“How can a woman make music on the streets?”

Ruşen mentioned that performing on the streets is very difficult for a woman. When she went to the eastern of the country, she was told, “A woman cannot make music on the streets.”, “She doesn’t know anything about her culture, and how can a woman make music on the streets?” Her family always supports her and she keeps making music on the streets. She is proud of herself.

“Being a woman in the world is difficult but being a woman in Turkey is more difficult. We face gendered discourses such as, “A woman cannot make music, go out and walk around…” For example, I'm a percussionist. I play a percussion instrument. When I play my instrument on the streets, people tell me, “Men can play percussion instruments.” Women can play which instrument they want. Women always face pressures. This is very sad. Women must be free. If a woman likes music and performs on the streets, she should perform it freely. I am calling on female street musicians; Make music as you want. I know you will face hard times. You will get many negative reactions for being a woman. You will face obstacles. But you shouldn’t give up. If we like the music we should do our best to keep making music.”