News Center- Women, who have had their share in the domination culture and who have been expelled from the world of literature, are trying to preserve their existence in literature. Author Sevim Korkmaz Dinç describes this field as “A field where we do not exist and not seen in, but exactly where we are in.” Sevim Korkmaz Dinç is one of the writers who protect their untold or uncompleted stories and write them again and again. We met with Sevim Korkmaz Dinç, one of the founders of the Women Writers Association, at the Diyarbakır Book Fair, which hosted book lovers for the seventh time this year.

A field where women are invisible

The fair, which brought many writers and readers together organizing 75 different cultural events, also shed light on the relationship between women and authorship by organizing events titles “If Women Write”, “Deserted Women's Street” and “Women tell Diyarbakır”. Describing literature as a field where women are invisible, Dinç tell us how women are objectified in this field and their struggle against it:

“As it is known, women are used as an object in all fields of art but the situation of women in the literature shows itself as a field in which we use words, expressions, everything expressing our feelings and thoughts, should be constantly talked about. Because when literature is mentioned, women never come to mind. When literature is mentioned, male-dominant society and men come to mind. When we talk about “Women and literature”, we talk about only the visibility of women in men's texts. What are women in male texts? They are an object that is in love, or when we take a look at social roles, they are an object that raises the children in the house. But they are never a subject (actor). Was everything like that throughout history? Or was everything like that when we take a look at historical texts? Many good books have been written about this issue, we have very good texts about this. When we look at them, we see that the word itself is created by women. Women have the characteristics that make us human and the features of building life. But women lost what they had because men marginalized and blocked women from literature while women were trying to organize the life they created. The silence of women and the confinement of women in houses are this situation’s important factor.”

‘Women building life are underestimated’

Pointing out that dominant culture is always among men Sevim Korkmaz Dinç states that the same culture reflects in literature. “As women, we don’t destroy the states and rebuild governments in the world. We don’t destroy places and rebuild them. What we are doing; we are looking at the world from the world of our own within the borders drawn for that house. And we choose our subjects in the literature in that house.” says Dinç. To Dinç, women know very well how to live and the words are shaped accordingly. Dinç says that women are underestimated in the world of literature and she adds that in fact, those who build life and spaces are women.

‘Women’s expression is needed”

Stating that women have destroyed the world built by men in literature, Dinç says that women’s expression is needed.

“Emotions are needed in the process of being human. Women need to speak more in the field of literature. The world built by male-dominant is not life itself. The women and the emotions of women have built the life itself and have sustained humanity. You can never come across a sentence such as “He/she takes a gun and kills someone” in women's texts. You can never come across sentences such as “He/she takes the knife, kills someone, he/she is drenched in blood” in women’s texts. Even if women write a crime novel, there isn’t blood or kill words in their novels. We talk about two different perspectives. Women are life itself.”

‘Women cannot write in their native language’

Indicating that there are more women writers in Turkey after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, Dinç says this situation is the result of women's struggle. “It's liberation. The liberation means rebuilding the world with the consciousness of women’s existence,” says Dinç. Stating that women went through a period in which they couldn’t even use their names when talking about the Ottoman period to the present, Dinç says the women cannot write in their native language.

“We live in a country where the native language is forbidden. It is very painful for us as women writers, women, and members of an association encouraging women to write. Imagine that women could write in their native language, who knows what kind of world they could produce.  The more we are liberated, the more we defend our own struggle, our rights, and our creativity in the field of literature and art will be strengthened more.  Women should come together and create small workshops no matter where they are, even in villages. They never need a teacher. They should compare the books they read with their own lives. They can look at what the books talk about and how are their lives. Only then, women can make their voice to be heard.”

Born in Antakya, 1952, Sevim Dinç Korkmaz graduated from the Department of English Language Teaching, Ataturk University. She worked as a teacher until 1979. She was arrested after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. She began to write after being released. She founded Women Writers Association in 2008 along with a group of her friends. She is a member of PEN and a founder of F Magazine. She was the spokesperson of the Peace Bloc for a period. “It was a dark night: 12 September 1980”, “Our Social Memory: Women in novels of 12 September”, Ten Days in Cuba, and Days of a woman in custody are several books written by her.