HUNDREDS of women from across Turkey vowed to stand in mutual solidarity at the weekend, taking power from each other as they revitalise their movement.

Delegates from more than 160 women’s organisations gathered at the Fulya Arts Centre in Istanbul yesterday for a two-day conference under the slogan: “Our rights, our lives, our achievements.”

A joint statement stressed the diversity of the conference participants.

“Today, we are at home, at work, on the street, in the garden, in the university, in the village, in the strikes, in the square, in the parliament, in the neighbourhood, at the counter, at the desk, in the association, in the co-operative, leaving what we have been doing and welcoming our enthusiasm.”

Striking a defiant tone, they promised women would continue the struggle against the government’s misogynistic agenda and not accept being “trapped in our homes.”

Turkey remains one of the world’s most unequal societies for women, ranking 131st out of 144 nations in the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Gender Gap Index.

On average, women are paid 17.8 per cent less than men. The general unemployment rate is 14.2 per cent, but more than a quarter of women aged under 25 are out of work.

According to a report, violence against women increased by a staggering 1,400 per cent between 2003 and 2010. At least 329 women were killed in the first 10 months of last year, with 342 rapes over the same period.

Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists it is impossible to discriminate against women, while demanding that they bear at least three children and branding childless ones “deficient and incomplete.”

The statement vowed that women would not give up their rights or their lives to anyone: “We will not obey,” they said defiantly.

Those gathered pledged to stand together, proclaiming: “We continue to take power from each other,” and said the large and diverse meeting was a reminder of the strength of the women’s movement in Turkey.

"Our movement takes its power from our solidarity and we know that we can move the world with this power.

“From Argentina to Iran, from Iceland to America, from Poland to Spain, women’s revolts, women’s liberties, bodies, labour, identity, we have seen it [resistance] again. Now, together, in the women’s movement in Turkey, we feel that power again.”