06.12.2025 00:05
In the program "Women Who Leave a Mark on the Union," BBP General Chairman Mustafa Destici highlighted the challenges women faced in accessing education and the workforce in the past, emphasizing that significant progress has been made today. Destici expressed the necessity of establishing universities and hospitals specifically for women to further strengthen this process. He also reiterated the importance of encouraging parenthood.
On December 5th, the "Women Who Left a Mark on Unity" program, held in the context of International Women's Rights Day, was conducted in Istanbul with the participation of BBP General Chairman Mustafa Destici.
"WOMEN'S UNIVERSITIES MUST BE ESTABLISHED"
Speaking at the program, Mustafa Destici, the General Chairman of the Great Unity Party (BBP), stated, "Our women have been distanced from social life and education due to the lack of schools where they could comfortably study in the past, the absence of universities, and the lack of regulations regarding their working lives. However, significant progress has been made in this regard today. I want to express two points candidly from here.
"EVEN IN JAPAN, THERE ARE"
Firstly, it is essential to establish universities that only women or our girls can attend, which even exist in Japan today. Women's universities must be established in Turkey. Secondly, hospitals that will serve only our women must be implemented as soon as possible. For years, they opposed these under the guise of secularism, just as they opposed headscarves. Just as they opposed imam hatips. Just as they opposed women's education for these reasons or causes. Just as they distanced our women and girls from education and working life. They will not take anything personally here. But we have lived these realities. We experienced them on February 28. We experienced them during the September 12 coup period," he said.
'WE CONDEMN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN'
Destici stated, "First of all, I want to express that we, on behalf of myself and the Great Unity Party community, categorically reject and condemn violence against women. This is not just a problem of our country; it is a problem of the whole world, and unfortunately, we see that the measures taken to solve this issue are insufficient. If they are insufficient, the necessary action is to increase penalties and to review the laws. Of course, before that, education and preventive measures must be implemented. If necessary, this process should be monitored with teams of psychologists, sociologists, and social scientists that will be formed by visiting households. Because we know that hundreds, perhaps tens of thousands of women are experiencing violence but cannot raise their voices or report it due to shame," he said.
'WE SUBMITTED MORE THAN TWO MILLION SIGNATURES TO THE PARLIAMENT PETITION COMMISSION'
Destici stated, "Especially the harassment, rape, and resulting deaths of our children at a young age. I do not want to name names, but this continues even in recent years and months. As the Great Unity Party, we have cried out many times. We submitted more than two million signatures to the Parliament Petition Commission. We held a referendum in 30 provinces. We shared the results with the public and the parliament. Ultimately, I said that the death penalty must be reinstated for these perverts who rape and kill our children and young girls," he expressed.
"THAT MINDSET STILL CONTINUES"
Destici stated, "Another issue we need to discuss today is discrimination. It is a fact that one of our most significant problems is the discrimination directed at our women. This has decreased over time. However, we still have shortcomings in this regard. While providing educational opportunities for our children, we unfortunately still encounter the mindset that prevents our girls from receiving higher education. Similarly, we are still faced with such examples, albeit to a lesser extent, regarding our girls' ability to acquire professions and enter the workforce. Ensuring that our women have the capacity and economic power to say no should be among our most important goals. We must also reassess the rate of women in employment, the number of insured women, and their contributions to production and thus the economy. The steps to be taken in this direction will not only mobilize the existing workforce but also ensure economic growth in the country while improving the welfare of our women and their families, and at the same time, opening the door to a safer life. I emphasize once again that the first step in this is a serious educational planning, and every single one of our women must receive this education," he said.
EMPHASIS ON POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION IN WORKING LIFE
Destici stated, "Positive discrimination should be applied to our women in working life. The working conditions for our women should be rearranged to allow them to spend time with their families. Because a woman is also a spouse and a mother. She is the first teacher of her child. Therefore, if men work for 8 hours, hypothetically, our women should work for 6 hours. They should go in one hour later in the morning and leave one hour earlier. Similarly, our women should never be made to work on weekends. Holidays and leave days should be a full day for our women. For example, there is a half-day holiday before the holidays. Here, it should be a full day for our women because they also have the anxiety of preparing for the holiday," he said.
'WE MUST ENCOURAGE HAVING CHILDREN'
Destici stated, "We must encourage marriage. We must encourage having children. But of course, this requires the preparation of an environment where there is more security, no high cost of living, and where everyone can comfortably educate their children and every family can marry off their children. Young people who get married need to find opportunities to enter the workforce. New employment areas must be opened where our university graduates can definitely find jobs. Therefore, our women hold an important and valuable position. The peace, happiness, and security of our women living in a safe life will eliminate this danger. In other words, it is the Turkish woman who will sustain Turkey and the Turkish nation. We especially see that our working women have hesitations about having children. So what is the reason for this? What should these reasons be based on? When we look at this, the first reason is the shortness of maternity leave and the lack of a daycare where they can leave their children at their workplace. Therefore, we need to ensure that our sisters who wish to can take two years of leave after childbirth and that daycare centers with the capacity for every woman to leave her child must be established in every institution where our women work," he expressed.