How We Got Started?
Although the idea of starting a women’s initiative was first put forth in the year 1994, KA-MER wasn’t founded until 1997. During the intervening three years, we thought about and carried out research to determine how we should get started, and also conducted a survey in 1996.

The idea for the initiative came about as a result of questioning “violence.” Since 1984, news of dozens of cases of attack, arrest, torture, and death in all parts of Turkey, but especially in the East and Southeast Anatolia Regions, became the norm. Thousands of people were becoming the direct or indirect victims of violence. Worst of all was that violence was being turned into something common, something normal. We began to ponder this matter. How did the process that normalizes violence develop? Who were these people who beat, hung, stabbed, and raped others as if doing just any common job? How had they been raised? When and how did the process by which violence becomes most common, most normalized, begin?

This curiosity led us to look into our own homes. We found that the place where violence became normalized was the home. Violence against women was continuing, a widespread state of events viewed as nothing out of the ordinary, and each one of us were the victims of its practice. In that case, it was necessary to “work for women, together with women.” And that’s how the idea came into being.

The results of a survey we carried out with 599 women in 19 different parts of the two regions together with a women’s project were sufficient to clearly illustrate the situation. According to the survey results: 45.8% of women were illiterate. 4.3% hadn’t finished elementary school, while 33.5% had completed elementary school only. The rate of polygamous marriages was 10.6% And the results of questions regarding how marriages happened were has follows: Married off by the family % 60.8 Married of the couple’s own accord % 25.6 Eloped with husband % 5.3 Bride exchange % 4.5 Abduction % 1.7 Marriage partner determined during infancy % 1.0 It was found that 51.6% of women were not acquainted with their husbands before marriage.

Interviews held during this initiative and the observations of our friends who conducted field studies helped to determine what the exact needs were. There were two basic needs:
- Violence was being experienced by women as a result of their status as women, and this violence was considered to be something natural. This finding showed that the process of the normalization of violence began in the home.
- Or small percentage of women could define violence but thought that there was no way to break free of it.

After obtaining this information, the time had come to establish a women’s center. KA-MER was then established as a Limited Company, the reason being that a few days and a small amount of financial resources was sufficient for establishing a company. KA-MER Limited was founded on 21 August 1997.

Where We Are Now?
Around eight years has passed since the establishment of KA-MER. Originally founded to serve Diyarbakir and its environs, KA-MER went on to begin initiatives in many provinces and districts of the Southeast and East Anatolia Region.

Having conducted its first initiatives as a limited company, on 22 July 2004 the KA-MER founded the KA-MER Dernegi (KA-MER Association) for the purpose of continuing women’s initiatives in Diyarbakir and its districts.

On 23 February 2005, KA-MER then went on to apply to establish the KA-MER Foundation which as an organizing model would encompass all of the regional initiatives that KA-MER had been carrying out since 2000. Our goal is to have opened a women’s center in each of the provinces of Southeast and East Anatolia by the tenth anniversary of our establishment in 2007.

Our Objective
We described our objective when we first began our initiatives as “To make people aware of the invisible aspect of violence against women, that is, domestic violence, and to provide initial and emergency support to women experiencing violence.”

Since 2000, we have described our objective as “determining those cultural and traditional practices which are harmful to women and children, developing alternatives to these practices which are in accordance with human rights, and developing methods to make those practices feasible.”

We arrived at this objective as a result of our experiences, together with the women who have taken part in our initiatives. Because we concluded that there was a preconceived notion maintaining that in order to defend women’s human rights, one had to renounce parts of one’s cultural, and that this preconceived notion was especially prevalent among women. A large proportion of the resistance that we met in the course of our work arose from this preconceived notion. Yet we were of the belief that “feminism is for everybody and everyone is bound only to their own understanding of feminism.”

Our Principles
When we say “to each her own feminism,” we do not mean that any concessions should be made with regard to the indispensable principles of feminism. We have always been very careful to remain true to the following principles.
- To be pro-human rights and pro-women’s human rights
- To be independent both mentally and structurally from all kinds of political organizations as well as from other non-governmental organizations.
- To reject all kinds of discrimination.
- To reject all kinds of violence.
- To reject structural hierarchy.
- To be pro-sharing and solidarity.
- To think globally and act locally.