On March 4th, I rode the Metrobüs during the morning rush from Şişli-Mecidiyeköy stop to Zeytinburnu stop. Although the ride covered a lot of distance, the bus, at least during this portion, has its own lane so the ride itself was not that long comparatively; it lasted approximately an hour. While on the bus, I observed the ratio of female to male passengers as well as the presence of more secular women than visibly religious women. However overall, most of the cars were extremely male-dominated. Although the bus ride was relatively quick given the distance covered, a lot of the cars were extremely packed, so I can understand why some people, religious or otherwise, would rather avoid the public transit.
After riding the bus, I attended a meeting with Sevgi Akarcesme, a journalist from the English-language newspaper Today’s Zaman. She spoke to the group about her opinions and viewpoint about media restrictions currently occurring within Turkey. For example, she stressed the growing opinion that President Erdoğan seems to be using his office to establish what she called an “arbitocracy”, or a system in which everything is dependent on the arbitrary decisions of one man.” However, none of her answers emphasized gender issues. She did note the use of discouraging rhetoric in regards to gender and feminist. When prompted, she identified domestic violence as an important issue for women, but this seemed like a relatively general answer rather than one super-specific to Turkey. After the meeting, I began to question how much recognition women receive as a separate, independent group of constituents and voters with the power to prompt change.