Woman as an impetus for radical changes
Vonya Womack, presented a report on "The Exile of Turkish Women and Human Rights’ Violations"
On December 15, 2020, the International Round Table «The Role of Women in the Modern World. Gender (in)Equality», held to draw the public’s attention to the problems of women and the importance of women in modern society, took place at «Zoom».
The event, inspired by the International Cultural Center «Syaivo», was organized with the assistance of the National Council of Women of Ukraine, NGO «Women’s Unity», Inter-Party Parliamentary Association «Platform for Development of Ukraine», Association for Dialogue and Universal Values, and NGO «Women’s Federation for Universal Peace».
Welcoming speeches were made by the First Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Turkey, prominent Ukrainian diplomat and co-founder of the International Cultural Center «Syaivo» Ihor Turyansky, Head of the Secretariat of the Inter-Party Parliamentary Association «Platform for Development of Ukraine» Oleksandr Semenko, Chairwoman of the National Women’s Council of Ukraine, President of the European Center of the International Women’s Council, Ph.D. at Medical Sciences and Professor Lyudmyla Porohnyak-Hanovska and Chairman of the Board of «Women’s Federation for Universal Peace» Tetiana Kotseba.
The participants were completely impressed by the emotional speech of Vonya Womack, the Executive Director of the NGOs «Refugees Unknown» and «Stories Untold» (USA), who presented a report on «The Exile of Turkish Women and Human Rights’ Violations». Expressing her sincere gratitude to Ukrainian NGOs for the important activities they carry out for the benefit of society and women, in particular, Ms. Womack analyzed in detail the situation with violations of the rights of women and children in Turkey, who are imprisoned for any links to; Kurds, Armenians, LGBTQ+, Alevites, other non-muslims, Furkan Organization and Gulen Movement. Ms. Womack illustrated her report with horrifying statistics showing the number of women unjustly imprisoned, shared the stories of mothers who left Turkey seeking a better life and crossed the Aegean Sea in terrible circumstances and told about the conditions in which prisoners and children are kept in Turkish prisons. Ms. Womack called on everyone to show more empathy for women who have been victims of various forms of violence and devastating psychological pressure. She emphasized that revealing their stories could help to overcome the problem of violence in the long run. Ms. Womack expressed hope that these good deeds would save all humanity from all these troubles
