Do you have any recollection of this title ‘Woman Has No Name’ or “Heroes Are Always Men”? Does it sound familiar? If you are from the generation of 70s or 80s, it is impossible not to remember Duygu Asena who is the vanguard of woman rights in Turkey.
She is one of the best crusader authors whom I have read for three decades. I have decided to write about this immortal fighter to commemorate her works and her impact on Turkish literature on the 10th anniversary of her death. I am one of her passionate readers and I have almost read her every book, every column in various newspapers like Milliyet, Cumhuriyet et cetera and Kadınca Magazine that was founded by her in 1978. She bravely explored topics like women’s rights, sexuality and wife-beating in her writings. Although, she is known as a feminist writer, she denied this by saying: “ I am not feminist and never I was. I have only tried to tell that all women who are brutally beaten, crushed or died in Turkey have the same rights with men and both of us are equal!"
She graduated from the Istanbul Technical University as a pedagogist and after a while, she started to write a column. We all knew her with her first book “Woman Has No Name’ that was published in 1987. As it is known, the 1980s were the years the Feminist Movement got stronger in Turkey and her book hit the bookstores in this feminist era. This book had a selling record in Turkey with its forty editions within a year but unfortunately it was banned by the government. She never gave up an sought to redress in court. Atıf Yılmaz, who is one of the best movie directors of Turkey, adapted this book into screen after she won the court and the film broke box office records in 1988. Duygu Asena, who has achieved many successes in her 60-year life, was diagnosed as cancer regretfully and after she had battled for two years with a brain tumor, she died in American Hospital on 30 July, 2006.
In my opinion, her all books are must-read books. “Heroes Are Always Men, “Actually You Are Free” , “There Was Love In The Mirror” etc. I have watched the film “Woman Has No Name” for you one more time and selected some dialogues from the movie that has made me think twice. But first, it is time to ask: Who are the real heroes? Men? You are kidding!
Enjoy it!
* A 7 year-old girl asks her mom:
-“Mum will not my tits grow? ”
-“My dear, you will grow up, and soon you will have your tits.”
-“Why will my tits grow? What do the tits do? ”
-“ When you have a child, baby will drink milk from your breast and grow. ”
-“Why do not babies drink milk from fathers' breasts?”
-“Because it is the mother's job.”
-“Why is not it the duty of the fathers? What is their mission? ”
-“Their task is to raise their children ... in the best possible way. They earn money, dress their children in the best way, raise them up. ”
-“Mum, do they do that because they don't have tits? ”
-"No dear. Their job is to work and earn money. ”
-Why do not you work? Because you have tits? I do not want my breasts grow. The women with breasts always cry. Their husbands are also droopy like my father! I want to earn money. When I have money, I can do anything I want. ”
*From whom are we afraid of? Why can not we do what we want to do? Why are we ashamed of? Are those who judge and label us more intelligent or moral than us?
*I want to cry but I must not. Crying is a bad thing. They always say” Men do not cry” If crying is not a good thing, why is not banned for the girls?
*Do not you understand? I want to be myself and I want to be remembered with my name. I hope only respect and friendship from both men and marriage. Both of them (friendship and respect) can be exist with equality. Do not you understand, if there is no equality, there is none of them.
*The men in our life such as fathers, husbands, brothers, lovers, chiefs, directors, friends, all of them judge and say that you are crazy, they say that you can not achieve, they say that you are bad! They judge and label us, and we give them this permission. I will no longer give them this permission!
MELİKE ÇELİK
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