The photo of a woman in a red dress—her dark hair aswirl as police blast her full in the face with pepper spray—has become an international symbol of Turkey's recent protests. And with good reason: The month-long demonstrations are in many ways a women's phenomenon, a movement in which women have the most at stake—and are willing to stand up to the government to make themselves heard.
Fifty-one percent of the protestors in Istanbul's Taksim Square are women, according to a survey by Turkey's Konda Research Company. By comparison, in Cairo's Tahrir Square in 2011, women made up only 10 to 15 percent of the demonstrators. Given its welcome of women, the absence of sexual violence, and the inclusiveness of its demands, Taksim is definitely not Tahrir.
We invite our users to read the complete article published June 25 2013
The photo of a woman in a red dress—her dark hair aswirl as police blast her full in the face with pepper spray—has become an international symbol of Turkey's recent protests. And with good reason: The month-long demonstrations are in many ways a women's phenomenon, a movement in which women have the most at stake—and are willing to stand up to the government to make themselves heard.
Fifty-one percent of the protestors in Istanbul's Taksim Square are women, according to a survey by Turkey's Konda Research Company. By comparison, in Cairo's Tahrir Square in 2011, women made up only 10 to 15 percent of the demonstrators. Given its welcome of women, the absence of sexual violence, and the inclusiveness of its demands, Taksim is definitely not Tahrir.
We invite our users to read the complete article published June 25 2013