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MUĞLA - Ecofeminist Emet Değirmenci, who said that deforestation through unearned income projects, women living in rural areas is at risk of being commodified by being cut off from nature, said that it is everyone's duty to protect nature.

 

The struggle of the people of İkizköy, especially women, and the defenders of life, who resisted for days against the lignite mine intended to be established in the Akbelen Forests in the Milas district of Muğla, yielded results. In the case of annulment of the Integrated Plant EIA Exemption at the Muğla 3rd Administrative Court and the cancellation of the forest cutting in the Muğla 1st Administrative Court, a stay of execution decision was taken.

 

After the decision, life defenders emphasized that the resistance would continue.

 

Emet Değirmenci, an ecofeminist academic who supported the İkizköy resisters who resisted not to cut down the Akbelen Forests, evaluated the impact of ecological destruction on women.

 

Expressing that the social division of labor makes women's relationship with nature stronger, Emet said that it is everyone's duty to protect nature. Emet pointed out that women face the danger of commodification in the male-dominated social structure after deforestation.

 

‘Social division of labor is the most important factor’

 

Emet noted that the sharing of Nejla Işık from İkizköy on the digital media during the targeting of Akbelen Forests, one of the rent projects, reflected the scream of women, and emphasized that women's more embracement the struggle for ecology need to be a focus on. Noting that the role of women in nature is to seed, reproduce plants, and take care of orchards, Emet said: ‘’It is said that the first wheat was domesticated in Mesopotamia by women. I'm not saying that women are close to nature because they are fertile, but the social division of labor has continued women's knowledge, experience and being closer to nature. This wisdom is being ignored lately as global capitalism modernizes everything. Because women are in favor of the subsistence economy. They do not think about storing something somewhere and making a profit from it. This was seen as the Chipko Movement in India in the 1970s as the first actions of ecofeminists to take shape in the world by protecting forests. While women are always trying to grow native plants in devastated areas, men have come to the fore with different projects where they focus on things to be taken to the market and sold for money.’’

 

‘The air we breathe is toxic’

 

Stating that ecological destruction concerns women more closely, Emet said that due to the loss of biodiversity, drought and increasing chemicals, less crop is obtained. Emet said: ‘’The air that plants and we breathe is toxic. The trouble of putting the food on the table for women increased. This is seen in the African woman and in our land. While the wood she collects for cooking comes from a distance, not 5-10 km, due to deforestation, she is subjected to harassment and rape by the masculine patriarchal culture. Because the woman body is a commodity to have in the masculine eye.’’

 

‘More dangers await women’

 

Emet, who said that a woman with fertility characteristics, carries toxic substances from her genes to her child, said: ‘’Today, there are more than two hundred toxic substances in the uterus. While the fetus is forming, the child receives it. All of these are important for raising the next generations healthy, as a woman's body is affected by all kinds of chemicals. In addition, women face more innutrition. It has been determined in archaeological excavations that since the Neolithic period, from the moment the woman lost her power, she fed less and had more caries and tooth decay in her body. More dangers await women in the future. That is why women need to embrace of their life, land, air, forest, water more.’’

 

The danger of commodification in urban life

 

Emphasizing that women will be in a more difficult situation if the land is lost, Emet said: ‘’For example, the number of women who have mobile phones is few in the world. 30 percent in some places, 10 percent in some places. A mass with such insufficient access to education will either sell their bodies, see their bodies as material, or do unqualified jobs such as cleaning and nursing when they go to the city. This is how young women are treated in the city, while old women are treated as waste. In order not to lose her land, the woman says ‘I am looking at six people from the little garden. If I go to the city, I will lose these.’ There is a very clear segment for that.’’

 

Expressing that as ecofeminists, they oppose social roles and dream of an egalitarian society, Emet said: ‘’We protect nature. It is everyone’s duty to protect our land.’’