MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Amed – Four women will open a “Women’s Bazaar” in the Sur district of Amed (Diyarbakır) to provide job opportunities for women living in the district and encourage their participation in the labor force. The women rent a historical building in the district and restore it. The women are going to open many shops in the building and sell their handicraft products and other women’s handicraft products in the shops.

“All women who produce can work”

We spoke to Gülistan Aşkın, one of these four women.  Gülistan Aşkın is also a painter. She drew the portraits of women on the walls of the historical building that they rented for the bazaar. After the bazaar opens, many handicraft products such as bracelets, paintings, and scarfs will be sold in the bazaar. Stating that all women, who produce can work in the bazaar, Gülistan Aşkın said that there will be many shops in the bazaar.

“Our aim is to create job opportunities for women”

Stating that their aim is to create job opportunities for women, Gülistan Aşkın said, “We began this journey to create a space for women without being subjected to mobbing and harassment and to provide them moral and material support. We found a historical building in the district and rented it. We carried out the restoration work of this building. There will be shops in the building where different handicrafts will be sold and women will be able to work in these shops.”

“Courage is contagious”

Gülistan Aşkın told us that they designed this project to show what women can do. “Our aim is not to tell the culture of masculinity, “Look, we are women, but we can do this too”. We don’t need to prove ourselves to them. But we wholeheartedly want women to hear us. As the politics of fear or intimidation, courage is also contagious. For this reason, we try to prove ourselves to women,” she said.

“We invite women to the bazaar”

Stating that women should go out from houses and get their own economic independence, Gülistan Aşkın said, “We really want women to get their economic freedom. Women should go out and understand they economically don’t need men. We will open the bazaar in a week. We invite all women in the district to the bazaar.”