Women in Kurdistan and Turkey are eagerly awaiting International Women’s Day on March 8. In many cities where preparations for rallies and marches are underway, women’s gatherings are also continuing. Preparing for March 8 with agendas such as femicides, women’s poverty, violence against women, attacks on women’s gains and labor exploitation, women say they are determined to strengthen their struggle.
Women working in the labor sector, however, are marking this year, as in previous years, while continuing their work. ANF spoke to several women about the approaching March 8 and women’s labor. Three women, one producing at home, one running a small shop and another working day and night in a textile store, said, “Our stories are different, but the poverty is shared.” They emphasized that March 8 is a day of struggle and should not be romanticized. The women said their voices must be raised in the streets against violence and exploitation on that day, adding, “Our rights must be defended everywhere,” as they described the difficulties and exploitation they face.
According to the “Women in Statistics 2024” data published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), 31.5 percent of women in the country live at risk of poverty or social exclusion. While the same risk stands at 27.1 percent for men, the data shows that one in three women faces economic insecurity. In Diyarbakır (Amed), the situation is even more severe. According to the report “The Female Face of Poverty: The Map of Inequality in Diyarbakır” prepared by the Union of Municipalities of Southeastern Anatolia Region (GABB), 75 percent of women in the city have no income at all. Face-to-face interviews conducted with nearly 3,000 women in three districts revealed that the income earned by working women does not remain with them, while women who do not work sometimes go entire days without eating. Nearly 70 percent of women are pushed away from both production and social life due to unpaid domestic labor.
This is your story
Women say that what is happening in a system where poverty and exploitation have increased so dramatically is not fate, and they insist that this order must change. Pointing out that they do not receive the value of their labor, that they are becoming poorer day by day and that their work is rendered invisible, the women shared with ANF the problems they experience while working. Despite working day and night, they say they receive neither recognition nor even a word of thanks. When asked, “What is your greatest wish at the end of the day?” the working women replied: “All day long I only wish for evening to come so that I can finally sleep.”
The first woman we spoke with is a domestic worker. Fatma Eker, who has been married for nearly 50 years and has three children, has spent the last 30 years in the same living room, holding a cleaning cloth in her hand while waiting to build a world of her own. Fatma Eker said that she knows very well what labor, exploitation and struggle mean, but that what is needed is courage. She emphasized that March 8 is not only about dancing and celebrations, but must also become the voice of millions of women who struggle at home like herself.
I keep walking, but I am always in the same place
Fatma Eker said she has struggled for years to build a life of her own but has been unable to find a way out. With the words “This is your story,” she said that she shares the same fate as many mothers living in homes today.
Fatma Eker described her story as follows: “A working woman gets tired, but at home you become twice as exhausted. You wake up in the morning and keep going until evening without stopping. Even the most democratic man places all responsibilities on the woman. He wants his tea, his coffee, his food separately. The problems of the children are even greater. At home you do everything. You work constantly, as if you had four hands. Clothes, ironing, cooking, the struggle to make ends meet, each one is another burden.
I am 45 years old. For years every day of my life has been the same. I live the same things every day. Throughout all these years I have never received the value of my labor. I never even had time to think about my own troubles. While raising my children and cleaning the house, I forgot myself. My life has been nothing but labor, yet I have never received anything in return for it. I have never enjoyed this life. When you cook a meal, there is not even someone who says ‘well done.’
Life goes on, but you remain standing in the middle of the living room with a cloth in your hand. You walk and walk, yet you end up in the same place, the middle of that room. Everyone in your family goes on with their lives, but you remain there. You are the one who turns that house into a home, yet you are always treated like a decoration.
Many women besides me live the same reality. My neighbor cannot even go to the market without her husband’s permission. She cannot step outside the door to visit her mother. Yet she does all the work at home. Our world as women becomes three-room houses. Inside that world we do the same things every day. There is labor, but no reward. We live every day in grief.”
They should come and take us out of that living room
Fatma Eker also shared her thoughts on March 8 and said: “For us women, March 8 is not a day of celebration, but a day of rebellion and uprising. It is necessary to say, ‘I am not a flowerpot’ and to raise that rebellion. I am the one who labors and produces. I know this, but no one else seems to see it. Now they must see it.
March 8 should not pass only with dances. For all of us, it must be a day of struggle. They should come and take me out of that living room. March 8 should not be something to celebrate; it should be the day when rebellion emerges. That is why they should give courage to all women. They should come and take us out of that three-room world. And we must also go to the streets to say, ‘We exist.’”
I work, but at the end of every month I only think about the rent
Sarya Demir, who earns her living as a shopkeeper in Diyarbakır’s Sur district, is one of these women. Demir, who supports herself by selling the paintings and jewelry she produces in her own workshop, is actually a teacher. After being dismissed about ten years ago, she later opened a workshop where she could sell the products she makes.
Despite all the difficulties, Sarya Demir continues to work in her workshop and described the challenges of being a woman shopkeeper: “As a woman, you already face obstacles and difficulties in every sphere of life. Being a shopkeeper, which society often sees as a male profession, can be very difficult. Because of the country’s conditions, we are experiencing serious economic hardships. This is not an individual situation; many people like me are going through the same process.
Labor exploitation is very widespread. I cannot receive the value of the effort, time and thought I put into my work. If you are a woman, your labor already has neither material nor social recognition. There is no recognition for domestic labor, nor is there a wage in the workplace that corresponds to the effort you give.
I spend months working on a painting. The materials constantly increase in price and there is so much labor involved, yet at the end of the month the only thing I think about is how I will pay the rent.”
Sarya Demir said she is welcoming March 8 under these difficult conditions and added: “For me, March 8 is the day of labor and struggle. On that day we need to raise our voices together with millions of women in the streets. We must work even harder for the struggle of labor.”
Elif Ay, who works day and night in an unregistered textile workshop in the city to support both herself and her mother, is another woman waging the same labor struggle. Having worked in this sector since a young age and for nearly 30 years in insecure conditions in textile workshops, Elif Ay works in the shop during the day and continues working at home at night.
Elif Ay said she does not receive the value of her labor and does not even have social insurance. Her greatest dream, she said, is simply to live in a home with central heating and an elevator.
She explained that after her working day, which begins at 08:00 in the morning and ends at 18:00 in the evening, she has no time left for herself once she returns home. Elif Ay also said that she will be working on March 8 and therefore will not be able to attend the rally.
Every day my only dream is to go home and sleep early
Elif Ay, who sent a message through ANF to the women who will attend the rally, described the exploitation she experiences with the following words: “I am 59 years old. I have been working in this sector for nearly 30 years. Wherever I went, I was dismissed from my job because I demanded security and basic guarantees. There is no one at home. I live with my elderly mother. I struggle both for myself and for her.
But the struggle I have given has never resulted in any security. My condition have always been very poor. I have never worked under humane conditions. Other women who work like me are in the same situation. At this age, I work simply to avoid going hungry.
During the day I become so exhausted that the only thing I want is for evening to come so I can sleep. We start work at 8 in the morning and finish at 6 in the evening. I remain on my feet all day. For what? Just to take a loaf of bread and some oil home.
Under these conditions, I cannot even dream of anything else. Because I work on a piece-rate basis, I keep working even during breaks in order to produce more. Yet no matter how much I work, the money I earn is not enough. For 30 years my only concern has been to survive.
We are in 2026, yet I still live in a house heated by a stove in a building without an elevator. My mother is ill and cannot climb the stairs. But with the money I earn, I cannot change anything.”
They should also struggle for me
Elif Ay also shared her message for March 8 and made the following call to women: “Everyone talks about March 8, but I cannot go to the square because I will be working that day. I have never received the value of my labor. Today, even raising my voice against this exploitation is prevented.
All women who live like me must raise their voices through struggle. I cannot do it, but they should do it on my behalf as well.”
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