Women’s Defence Network (Kadın Savunma Ağı- WDN) is an independent, grassroots feminist organisation rising up against gender- and queer-based violence in Turkey. Since their inception in 2018, they’ve built a vibrant and resilient presence in more than ten cities across Turkey and supported thousands of individuals with their work, which is as vast and diverse as feminist campaigning, community & capacity building and a broad range of direct actions.
The organisation is structured around seven key thematic areas: Legal Support, Psychology and Wellbeing, Organising and Community Building, Advocacy and Campaigning, Feminist Self-Defence Workshops and Collective Learning, Feminist Reading and Social Media Communication. They operate across the country in many different cities, but they also have been sustaining the community space Mor Mekan (the Purple Space) in Istanbul and İzmir (2025). These are hubs where people can meet and organise unrestrictedly, and run screenings, forums, workshops, demo preparations and talks. Despite not having a dedicated hub in each place they’re active in, they bring this community energy to other Turkish cities too, where they use university rooms or other solidarity spaces to meet. Besides the physical and online meeting spaces they run, the WDN crew organises annual summer camps – large-scale gatherings that bring together women, children, queer people, and migrants together. The gatherings help flatten asymmetries between typical big and small city divides, or independent or self-initiated community hubs, and they are a great opportunity to boost engagement and carve space for strategic rethinks of their work based on local and national struggles.
In Turkey, violence and discrimination against women and queer people are increasingly worrying. High-level political rhetoric frequently targets these groups, legal protections are weakening, and public safety remains at risk amid systemic impunity. This is why what WDN really wants with their work is not an over-realiance on their organisations’ activities or support, but rather to empower women and LBTIQ+ communities to build solidarity networks, create safe spaces, and have affected people join the tide of fighting for their rights in contexts where repression runs deeper and deeper.
The Guerrilla Redistribution
Our funding went into organising feminist self-defence workshops across multiple cities with university students, workers, municipal employees and independent women participants that applied via their open calls on social media. They aim to reach between 350- 500 women/ LGBTQ+ people with these trainings, which are ever more important given the dire situation that queers and women face in Turkey.
Additionally, we supported them with core funding to ensure the maintenance, sustainability, and accessibility of their Mor Mekan community spaces in Istanbul and Izmir, which serve as vital hubs for boosting agency, collective organising, and solidarity among women and LBTIQ+ individuals. These are not just spaces where more than 200 people go, but also places where approximately 20 organisations can use for their activism.
Finally, the money will be used on advocacy and awareness campaigns around International Women’s Day and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The goal with campaigning around these worldwide celebrations is to use the momentum that already exists around these dates and catalyse it by organising events to make their feminist self-defense politics visible within the public sphere and the women’s movement at large.
