Women Supporting Women #ChallengeAccepted
Image source: The Guardian Photograph: beelzeboobz
Have you seen a black and white photo of a woman you know on social media this past week?
We started noticing the posts floating around tagged #womensupportingwomen and #challengeaccepted before being tagged to participate ourselves. As two black women particularly affected by the recent events around the Black Lives Matter movement globally, we have both been actively asking ourselves what does activism look like to us, and how/when do we reflect this through our brand? Honestly, we were both wary of participating in another round of hashtag activism and wondered what was the origin of this latest “challenge”? What were we actually supporting by participating?
Upon further research, we discovered it originated from something that we understand all too well. Turkish women, many under the age of 35, were being murdered at an alarming rate (474 in 2019 alone) in Istanbul and their murderers not being held accountable (sound familiar)? The black and white photos of more and more women found dead were appearing across social media and in newspapers, countless woman after woman seemingly with little or no repercussions for the people who had allegedly murdered them.
We learned that the black and white photo challenge isn’t new & there have been similar challenges in the past. That said, we must admit, that before this week and the #ChallengeAccepted hashtag, weren't aware of what had been happening in Turkey.
As women, we couldn’t help but feel heavy for the all to familiar adversities these Turkish women are facing, but for the many women and femme presenting people who deal with abuse in all forms; physical, sexual & emotional.
We want to actively empower women in our lives and through our business, and not saying anything about this didn’t sit right with us. Amongst everything we are working on, we spent time this week discussing what we stand for as individuals and how this should be reflected in our brand. It dawned on us that if we wanted to say we empowered women, we had to also be following that up with direct actions.
We stand with these women and accept the challenge, using our platform to support and build up other women (both on and off Instagram). We are nominating you, (yes, you!) reading this blog to post a black and white photo of yourself using all four of the hashtags below to continue to raise awareness.
For those of us who have already shared a photo - edit and add this to your caption; each hashtag helps raise awareness!
Share with a purpose! ✨
#kadınaşiddetehayır - English translation is “say no to violence against women”
#istanbulsözleşmesiyaşatır- English translation is “Enforce the Istanbul Convention”
Learn More
Read more about this on NY Times article here.
Zeycan Rochelle; a Black & Turkish writer, fashion designer and philanthropist posted a succinct yet detailed overview post on her Instagram here.
Donate
To donate/support to Turkish Women's Rights campaigns, check out this article which has links to petitions and fundraising efforts.
