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Ece became paraplegia when a taxi crashed her on the pavement she was standing to get acharcoal grilled seasoned mutton intestines on Şişli Halaskargazi Street in İstanbul in 2014.
She earns her life by selling lighter, pencil and handkerchief on streets in Şişli in her wheelchair, which was brought from Germany with the support of Laborist Movement Party (EHP) and We Will Stop Femicides Platform.
In the recent days, donation was collected to meet her rent for one year in a campaign launched by proactive voluntarism platform Erktolia, which combats sexist discourse and contents.
We talked about many things including her life, struggle, Ülker Street, rape, politics and LGBTI activism since she came from Munich to İstanbul at the age of 14.
From Munich to İstanbul
I am a 50-year-old trans woman. I am the child of a family who went to Germany in immigration status. I felt that I was different from everybody else when I started to learn my body aged 14.
My father was like an absolute dictator in the family. I think that is why an urge has developed inside me to struggle against the dictators.
I discovered my sexual orientation in time and I left home because of my family and father’s pressure. My father took me to a psychiatrist to change me. The doctors told him this situation wouldn’t change. He resolved it by sending me to my relatives in Turkey.
I have a street life that lasted 2-3 years, they raped me too. Men see raping a right for themselves if you are a trans or a street walker.
My father was a dictator
First, I came to İzmir and stayed at my aunt. We were wandering around with my cousin day after day. He was taking me to certain places with the hope that I could change. His intention was to make me a man, so, he was taking me to honky tonks.
There was the Rita Club in İzmir. It was mostly visited by homosexuals. He took me there and that day he said to me “ah, now I’ve understood your style”. It was 1982-84. My cousin sent me to İstanbul by bus to have me go to Germany. In those times, there were flights to Germany only from İstanbul.
I called my father from İstanbul, I said I arrived and waiting to get on the plane. He responded again like a dictator and we fought on the phone. “I am not coming”, I said and hanged up.
I haven’t met him since that day. It has been 35 years now. I called him from time to time as a decent person but he didn’t want to meet me. He lastly called me when he had an accident, “Hello, this is your father”, he said. I said “which father” though recognizing him.
I said “What happened” and he started to talk. “I am going to the Umrah, would you give me your blessing”, he said. I said, “I can give you my blessing if you see it as your right in your conscience”. Then he said, “I’ve heard you had an accident, hope you get better soon” and hanged up the phone.
I lived-in with my rapist
I was 15 when I was raped for the first time. I was living on the streets in İstanbul. It was the time when İstiklal Street was open to traffic. I started to live one of the three men who raped me because he saved me from living on the streets.
Turkey had just seen a coup at that time, you imagine how difficult those times were. Now I laugh at that because I had to live with my rapist. My rapist’s name was psychopath Bülent. He was earning his life by selling books on the streets. He found me a dish washing job at a restaurant. I’ve developed myself in time and started DJing.
At police stations…
One day I met with some trans women at the Fish Market. A trans woman named Canan took me to Pürtelaş street. I had to start sex work. Then Vice Squad director Doğan Karakaplan came, raided our homes; we were subjected to all sorts of torture at the police stations.
They were taking us to Belgrad Forest, raping and beating us, and stealing our belongings and leaving us naked. And we were again being raped until we got home. After people were dispersed from Pürtelaş and Ülker streets, I started DJing again. Along the line I enrolled in the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) and started politics.
Who wants to commercialize his/her own body?
The only point that trans women are accused of is sex work but among trans women, we have many educated friends who don’t want to commercialize their bodies.
No one wants to commercialize his/her body. One can be accustomed to this body exploitation. No trans woman dreams of sex work.
The system doesn’t give any chance to trans women other than prostitution. I never accept sex work because this is a thing that the society tries to impose on us.
I call gigolos, street walkers, and trans women who became “prostitutes who are forced to do sex work in exchange for money”. Since most fundamental rights of these people are prevented by the society and the system, what they are left with is the sex work.
The biggest supporter of the capitalist system is the patriarchy. For this reason, prostitution operations are usually carried out against women and trans women. It is never launched against male sex workers because this is the system’s own order.
I strongly resisted against compelled sex work
I strongly resisted again not to sell my body. I did many jobs from dish washing to DJing. I even continued the courses of İŞ-KUR to find a job, and I became a sanitarian.
We Will Stop Femicides Platform Spokesperson Dr. Gülsüm Kav had helped me in my studies. I had served my internship on children with dawn syndrome at a private hospital in Beykoz. The hospital management had appreciated my works a lot and they’d increased my working hours to five days a week.
But I couldn’t continue after my internship was over. I applied for a job to everywhere but I was rejected by all of the hospitals in İstanbul due to my trans identity.
Afterwards, I compulsorily started sex work again. After the accident, I’ve begun to earn my life by selling lighter on the street in a wheelchair, which was bought by the Laborist Movement Party.
The greatest system of exploitation is in the family
Society’s greatest system of exploitation is in the family. I believe family bonds are nonsense. The system supports this family structure to be able to exploit it.
For instance, why do they keep calling on to make three children? Is it because they care? No, it’s not. Wars have begun in our day and capitalism is collapsing, and new slaves are needed to send to war.
They wage wars for the reconstruction of the capitalist order to make the system function.
Unfortunately, those who died in wars are children of common people.
I am a politician, not an LGBTI activist
We, especially Demet Demir, have paid heavy prices but Demet was sent to prison just because she defended LGBTI rights.
Violence changing color and form still continues. I am a politician, not an LGBTI activist because I think I have to struggle for the rights of all oppressed peoples.
The system has undermined the associations working for LGBTI rights. The associations as well as the opposition media that cross with the system are being closed.
There is no difference between 1980 and 2017. In those times, journalists couldn’t cover trans murders due to political pressure. Trasn women cannot be organized as women movement do because they are apolitical and their associations are undermined by the system.
We have to say no against this dicta regime on behalf of all the oppressed peoples. Furthermore, a large portion of the governing party’s grassroots will even say no. They are undertaking referendum campaign by declared the people who say no as terrorists. They’ve built fear in people. Gezi spirit will live in the referendum. This is the last exit before the bridge. May the oppressed unite and say no against war and yes for peace right now. Let me repeat, let us say no for a free world.
(MD-EU/NU/HK)
Next- Şahika:You don’t get to choose to be a trans woman
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UNEMPLOYED JOURNALISTS CHASING NEWS
1- Even Though They Speak Through Their New “Occupations,” They Are Journalists
2- Journalism is Banned under theState of Emergency
3- Germany: New Generation Diaspora/Kopuntu
4- Germany: Immigration of the Suffocated
5- The Organization that Made “The Arab Girl Looks from the Window”
6- How They Work/Cannot Work, Breaking Down the Stereotypes
7– They Marry White People to Avoid Discrimination
8- Private Rehabilitation Centers and Problems: The Example of Bingöl
9- Two Directors Discuss the “Educational Support for People with Disabilities” Practices
10- Students and Parents from Bingöl Tell of Their Experiences
11- ‘Solution is Inclusion System in Education for People with Disabilities’
12- The Neighborhood of “Giaour” Doesn’t Exist Anymore
13- Mıgırdıç Margosyan Couldn’t Recognize His Street Amidst Ruins
* The “Unemployed Journalists Chasing News” project is being realized with the financial support of Matra-Human Rights Program of Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
