First in Turkey: Women’s District Bazaar in Bağlar, Diyarbakır

First women’s bazaar in Diyarbakır is consisted only of women. Second was set in Mersin but closed in a short time. It is by far the one and only. We interviewed GülerDeniz from Diyarbakır Bağlar Women Seller’s Solidarity Foundation.

15 Mart 2018, DeryaÇok

Who are seller women?

They are women who have never worked before other than their home, who are mostly over 50 years old and who make a living only by opening their stall in the bazaar. We are the youngest ones.

How and when did the idea of setting a women’s bazaar pop up?

It was first set up in a closed site by the Municipality of Bağlar in 2013 and started with 300 hundred women. I was involved three or four months after it was set.  We worked there for about 5 or 6 months and after that we started to lose money. The bazaar was in a blind spot. 100 women had to leave their stalls. Then, we went to meet some officers from the Municipality to decide on what to do and came up with the idea of setting temporary bazaars. Now, we open our stalls in five different places during the week and on we have a closed site inJiyan District Bazaar on Saturdays. We are now 85 women. We try to make our own living.

How was the process of becoming an association? Why did you need it?

Some problems emerged during our conversations with the public institutions. Our individual applications were not strong enough, that’s why we decided to be organized and thus be stronger.

Were there any other supporting institutions?

A committee from DİKAD (Association of Business Women in Diyarbakır) visited us. Also some women from development agency came to see our conditions. We are hopeful about them.

As a labourer woman, is there anything you would like to say to other women?

I think economic freedom is crucial. Your words count at least. We all have a life to maintain. If a 50-60 years old woman has her economic freedom, she will never be oppressed. Every woman should work and be free but also should not go beyond her limits. It is a hard job to work in bazaars. We call every woman to act with solidarity regardless of their class, religion or language. We exist and are strong together. We already experience male pressure both socially and at home but now they try to suppress us in bazaars also. We need support. We need to stand together with every woman.