Gelisim News

Stating that the world has started to face the economic consequences of the crisis created by Covid-19, Political Science and International Relations Specialist Elif Şahin from Istanbul Gelisim University said: “The results of the epidemic in terms of gender discrimination and violence have also started to be discussed. Especially in the Arab world, the decline in women's labor force participation is seen as an important opportunity for the feminist movement to raise its voice during the crisis.”

“IT WILL INCREASE EMPHASIS” 

Speaking about the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women meeting held in March, Elif Şahin said: “The main focus areas of the Feminist Covid-19 policy set out in the meeting were food safety, healthcare, violence against women and economic inequality. This will increase emphasis on the existence of women's rights and gender inequality in the fight against epidemic.”

Şahin continued as follows:

“New global system discussions after the pandemic period and scenarios drawn on financial expectations seem to be at high risk for feminist non-governmental organizations and women's organizations to overshadow the focus areas such as social-economic inequality, violence against women and the right to access information. Therefore, the organizational representation of women in the civil society and in the international arena is even more important, which is one of the most vulnerable groups that can be affected by discrimination and negative consequences during the crisis.” 

“THE MANEUVERING AREA OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT WILL EXPAND”

Stating that the needs of women and gender equality should be placed at the center of the struggle during the fight against Covid-19, Şahin said: “This will expand the maneuver area of the feminist movement in civil society. Otherwise, the concerns that the patriarchal structure will consolidate the authority that the participation of women in decision-making in the epidemic will remain in the background is also discussed, and it is seen that the consolidation of the power of the patriarchal structure will have a negative impact on women's rights and equality issues during and after the epidemic.”