We shared our last post in 8th March and then we crawled into our shell. We were getting a lot of threats but for the first time threats became real. One of our friend got attacked for the reason of volunteering to help another friend who had escaped from the supression of her family.
We are constantly coming back and forth, we are continuously trying to protect ourselves against the borderline of violance, threats and folllow-ups. We have received so many messages saying “You said you will not walk alone and then you went silent” that we had to ask ourselves if we were alone. Are we really walking “together”?
Have you ever walked with the fear of the many different possibilities of getting hurt? And think of having this fear just because you want to protest for your basic right on wearing whatever you like. Think of it, not only are you getting attacked but the people who walk along with you are getting attacked as well. Think of it you are reviving tons of messages from loads of women every day asking help yet you need that same help as well.
Think about it along this road many people from their comfortable lives just blaming you with “being from the outside” and “taking funds from outside” trying to insult you, slander and defame you without thinking of the effects this causes in the lives of people who wants our help and think that some people believes those blindly. Think that so-called critics like Mine Kırıkkkanat and Uğur Dündar find what you are doing “shady” and presents you as some kind of terrorists to their readers.
Think of all but do not miss out the fact that only thing you want is to dress up whatever you want freely. While you are fighting for that, many journalists and twitter trolls point you as a target.
Think that you are wearing down until you lose all your chances while your only hope is not walking alone. At least you have sisters along this road. We decided to come back thinking of our sisters who send messages, who sometimes reproach us while giving us hope the other times. It is because whenever we felt alone in this tiring process, we always got a message, an email that says “You will not walk alone.”
That is why we need your support. It is our call for you. To feel that you are not walking alone, to add our voice another voice to grow together, shout #yalnızyurumeyeceksin (meaning that “you will not walk alone” in Turkish) Although it is behind messages, we are a lot! There are lots of stories but only behind the letters we get.
We want you to show that we are not walking alone everywhere you can be seen and talk. Whether you show your face or not, share your photo showing that wind blows your hair with the hashtag #yalnızyurumeyeceksin.
We are here and having a lot of trouble but we want to overcome all of that together.