WUNRN
TURKEY - "WOMAN IN RED"
SPRAYED WITH TEARGAS BECOMES SYMBOL OF TURKISH PROTESTS
A Turkish riot policeman uses teargas on a
woman in a red dress as people protest against the destruction of trees in a
park in Istanbul on May 28. Osman Orsal / Reuters, file
By
Alexandra Hudson, Reuters
ISTANBUL - In her red cotton summer dress,
necklace and white bag slung over her shoulder she might have been floating
across the lawn at a garden party; but before her crouches a masked policeman
firing teargas spray that sends her long hair billowing upwards.
Endlessly shared on social media and
replicated as a cartoon on posters and stickers, the image of the "woman
in red" has become the leitmotif for female protesters during days of
violent anti-government demonstrations in Istanbul.
"That photo encapsulates the essence
of this protest," said math student Esra at Besiktas, near the Bosphorus
strait and one of the centres of this week's protests. "The violence of
the police against peaceful protesters, people just trying to protect
themselves and what they value."
A fourth day of violence erupts in cities
across Turkey where protesters claim Prime Minister Erdogan's government has
become increasingly authoritarian. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
In one graphic copy plastered on walls the
woman appears much bigger than the policeman. "The more you spray the
bigger we get" reads the slogan next to it.
The United States and the European Union as
well as human rights groups have expressed concern about the heavy-handed
action of Turkish police against protesters.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan branded the
protesters on Monday extremists "living arm in arm with terrorism," a
description that seems to sit ill with the image of the woman in red.
There were others dressed in more combative
gear and sporting face masks as they threw stones, but the large number of very
young women in Besiktas and on Taksim Square where the protests began on Friday
evening is notable.
With swimming goggles and flimsy surgical
masks against the teargas, light tasseled scarves hanging around their necks,
Esra, Hasine and Secil stood apprehensively in the Besiktas district on Monday
evening, joined by ever growing numbers of youngsters as dusk fell and the mood
grew more sombre.
They belong, as perhaps does the woman in
red, to the ranks of young, articulate women who believe they have something to
lose in Erdogan's Turkey. They feel threatened by his promotion of the Islamic
headscarf, symbol of female piety.
Many of the women point to new abortion
laws as a sign that Erdogan, who has advised Turkish women to each have three
children, wants to roll back women's rights and push them into traditional,
pious roles.
"I respect women who wear the
headscarf, that is their right, but İ also want my rights to be
protected," said Esra. "I'm not a leftist or an anti-capitalist.
İ want to be a business woman and live in a free Turkey."
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the
secular republic formed in 1923 from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire,
encouraged women to wear Western clothes rather than headscarves and promoted
the image of the professional woman. Ironically, Erdogan is seen these days as,
for better or worse, the most dominant Turkish leader since Ataturk.
Erdogan was first swept to power in 2002
and remains unrivalled in popularity, drawing on strong support in the
conservative Anatolian heartland.
The weekend demonstrations in dozens of
cities suggest however his popularity may be dwindling, at least among middle
classes who swung behind him in the early years of political and economic
reform that cut back the power of the army and introduced some rights
amendments.
"Erdogan says 50 percent of the people
voted for him. I'm here to show I belong to the other 50 percent, the half of
the population whose feelings he showed no respect for, the ones he is trying
to crush," said chemistry student Hasine.
"I want to have a future here in
Turkey, a career, a freedom to live my life. But all these are under threat. I
want Erdogan to understand," she added.
Erdogan, a pious man who denies Islamist
ambitions for Turkey, rejects any suggestion he wants to cajole anyone into
religious observance. He says new alcohol laws, also denounced by the women,
have been passed to protect health rather than on religious grounds.
Protesters are coming better prepared now
than when the unrest first began. Some have hard-hats, some are dressed all in
black, most wear running shoes. But many are dressed as femininely as the girl
in the red dress snapped on Taksim Square.
"Of course I'm nervous and I know I
could be in danger here. But for me that is nothing compared to the danger of
losing the Turkish Republic, its freedoms and spirit," said 23 year-old
economics student Busra, who says her parents support her protest.