Alternative Thought Association Held a Women’s Meeting in Seferihisar

Alternative Thought Association was established in 2013 in Ankara and it conducts studies on the rights of youth, women, disabled and elder rights, education, raising awareness on environment and equal citizenship, etc. Recently, the association held a women’s meeting in Seferihisar, İzmir. We interviewed Fazilet Çulha, President of the Association.

19 April 2018, Hatice Aktay

What topics did you talk about mostly in the sessions?

We tried to help women to express themselves freely and understand how they define and place themselves in life. It was more of a sharing than discussing. We had really exciting feedbacks. It was a first time for half of the participants to be in a meeting like this. Some of them got on a plane for the first time in their lives; some of them thought they had known about the topics we wanted to discuss but then they realized that they had missing information. Everyone has new friends now after the meeting.

What are your fields of study as an association?

We believe in living together with all the differences; we demand fundamental democracy and human rights and we think that monistic perception is the main factor that causes tension on this land we are living.

What studies do you do for the youth?

We started a project called “Democracy Perception of the Youth” and we held interactive workshops in Adana, İzmir, Van, Bursa and Ankara. We asked five questions to the participants and wanted them to evaluate the workshops. It was obvious how necessary those kind of meetings were.

What kind of problems do you face while doing these studies?

Civil society in Turkey needs EU funds but the application procedure is really difficult, so it is a little bit hard for us to get those funds. Apart from that, we cannot cooperate with public institutions. If you are an independent CSO, you cannot get public funding either. It is also very hard to collect donations and monthly dues. We strive to do studies under very tough circumstances.