Muş Municipality announced the establishment of the Women’s Assembly at a press conference. The meeting, held in the municipality’s conference hall, was attended by Muş Municipality co-mayor Tuba Sayılğan, women members of the Muş Municipal Council and many women. Making a statement at the meeting, Tuba Sayılğan said that with this step, they were taking the first step towards communalisation. Sayılğan said: “We look at these assemblies from this perspective. We want to become a women’s commune. We want this to be an assembly where women can sit, talk to each other, express their problems and produce policies. Through this, we want women’s voice, colour and labour to become more visible in local mechanisms in Muş.”
Women’s role in local administrations will be guaranteed
Afterward, the directive text was read out by Muş Municipality Women and Family Services Director Işık Ronay Akman. She stated that they declared this establishment in order to make women’s participation in decision-making processes in municipalities of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) an institutional mechanism. Işık Ronay Akman said, “In the municipality, ‘Women’s Councils’, ‘Women’s Coordinations’ and ‘Women-Men Equality Commissions’ have been formed. Together with the co-mayorship system, these structures are the fundamental democratic mechanisms that guarantee that women have voice, authority and decision-making power in local administrations.”
Goals of the assembly
Işık Ronay Akman explained the purpose of the newly established Women’s Assembly as follows: “To develop proposals, projects and activities that will strengthen the municipality’s work on gender equality. To produce solutions to the problems of women working in the municipality. To identify the problems of women within the municipal boundaries, bring them to the agenda and present solution proposals. To build networks and contribute to activities that will increase gender equality awareness.”
The assembly was declared
Işık Ronay Akman underlined that in DEM Party municipalities, it consists of elected representatives and municipal employees in order to ensure women’s direct participation in local government policies, and listed their purpose and work as follows: “It ensures that local policies are shaped from a women’s perspective and that women participate equally in decision-making mechanisms. It places the reflection of women’s demands and needs into municipal services on an institutional basis. Women’s Councils and Women’s Coordinations are established to carry out the practical work of Women’s Assemblies. They ensure the implementation, monitoring and expansion of women’s policies in municipalities. They strengthen coordination between municipalities and contribute to the joint implementation of women’s policies. Women-Men Equality Commissions are formed as structures in which elected women and men work together in municipal councils. They integrate the gender equality perspective into municipal services and local policies. While reinforcing women’s effective participation in decision-making processes, they also ensure that men are included in equality policies. Women’s assemblies, women’s councils, women’s coordinations and women-men equality commissions implemented in DEM Party municipalities are democratic and participatory mechanisms that ensure women are visible and effective in local administrations. Through these structures, women’s voice, decision and authority are guaranteed, and gender equality is institutionalised as a fundamental principle of the municipal governance approach.”