07/06/2023 | Writer: Kerem Selçuk
Şişli District Governorate banned the Diren Ayol screening announced by the University Feminist Collective. Women and LGBTI+ persons still carried on with their screening event by saying “Get used to it, we are here in solidarity despite the ban!”
The University Feminist Collective announced the screening of the documentary to take place today.
Şişli District Governor's Office imposed a one-day ban on events within the boundaries of Şişli district claiming that the documentary screening would fill the society with indignation, disrupt its national and humanitarian values, and undermine social inner peace. At the same time, the ban decision was applicable to all open and closed spaces on the grounds that the documentary screening might be against the constitutional order, and that the ban was intended to protect rights and freedoms and to prevent crime.
The University Feminist Collective did not recognize the ban and held the screening. University women and queers came together and watched the documentary by saying “You are even afraid that women and LGBTI+ persons will come together and watch a movie. Get used to it, we are here in solidarity despite the ban!”
About Diren Ayol
“While Rüzgâr wanted to make a documentary about her close friend, trans and LGBT activist Şevval, life plunges him into another documentary in the middle of Gezi Park in Istanbul in June 2013 and Pride Week that followed. As a result, Kanka Productions makes a documentary about the role of LGBT persons in Gezi Park and the changing political climate and the impact of Gezi on them. While #direnayol tells the dramatic changes in life from the eyes of LGBT people, it conveys the hope and happiness on people's faces and the days when a new form of sense of humor emerged. With #direnayol we meet again with people of all colors and hopes at the 2013 Pride Parade, which coincided with the Gezi Protests.
In the documentary Diren Ayol directed by Rüzgâr Buşki, you can watch Şevval Kılıç, Elif Keskinkılıç, Yeşim Başaran, Ali Arıkan, Eylem Çağdaş, Ceylan Begüm Yıldız, Nuri Özlü, Ecemen Dalga, Ayça Damgacı, Tutku Umut Ünar, Yıldız Tar, Sema Semih, Ediz Chance and Boysan Yakar.
*The word “Diren” means “Resist. “Ayol” is a form of exclamation used mainly by women when talking to one another. As the word has pejoratively been associated with femininity, the queer community in Turkey reclaimed it, and it is now in use in a self-affirming way.
Tags: arts and culture
