Turkey’s Women Strike Back
Suzy Hansen
Dado Ruvic/Reuters/Corbis
In June, the protest that began as a tiny demonstration against the destruction of Gezi Park in Istanbul’s Taksim Square morphed into a large-scale, country-wide standoff with the Turkish government that has been followed around the globe. Since then, five people have died, some eight thousand have been injured, and hundreds of professionals, students, and workers have been arrested; still, the protests continue. The government’s frequent recourse to water cannons, tear gas, and even rubber bullets has only strengthened the resolve of the protesters, to the surprise of even the activists leading them. When the police come out in full force in the neighborhoods around Taksim Square, the people gather together and challenge them.
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