Education: Prof. Fatmagül Berktay

“We are women who recognise that all problems are ours; we reclaim our wisdom, reinvent our tomorrows, challenge everything including dominant power and redefine everything. In the last few decades, we identified in detail our needs, our anger, our hope and our dreams for the future. We broke our silence; we ran out of our patience. We are tired of lamenting our pain. We are tired of vague promises and of waiting. We are thirsty for action, for dignity and joy. We no longer want to be satisfied with just being patient and surviving.”

Political scientist, academician and author, Prof. Dr. Fatmagül Berktay has worked on subjects including Turkey’s democratisation process, contemporary political theory, the status of women and women’s movements in Turkey and in the world, and religion and gender issues. Berktay has had many articles and books published nationally and internationally on political science and women’s studies. Her book “Women against Monotheistic Religions”is one of the five works selected from Turkey within the scope of the Fragen Project, that is supported by the European Union, aiming to collect important texts of the feminist movement.

Berktay, who has been a director at the Istanbul University Women’s Problems Research and Application Centre, has also represented Turkey in various forums including the United Nations and the European Union, and has served as an advisor in the state ministry responsible for women’s issues. Stating that the fight for gender equality is a part of the general fight for democracy against all kinds of discrimination, Berktay underlines that women’s rights are very fragile, and the most easily taken away rights are those given to women. She emphasizes that the fight for women’s rights is an unfinished business and that women have to struggle and win this fight continuously, over and over again.