Amargi Feminist Bookshop, Istanbul

Posted by rob on July 3, 2011

In the midst of the antique, boutique, upmarket, trendy European district of İstanbul the narrow streets are filled with bustling cafs and restaurants. The wafts of strong Turkish cafe and sweet shisha smoke fill the air. Amongst this is Amargi a feminist bookshop, cafe and social space run by volunteers. As soon as PEDAL heard of this space it became a central spot in our circuit between AFK social centre, 26A Anarchist cafe and Amargi.

The space is unique in many ways and takes on a brave role of facing contemporary gender, sexuality and feminist issues head on. İt is this raw devoted focus that makes this small beautiful cafe something else.

Originally Amargi was a book shop providing solely info on these issues and has now adapted into a space where this info is not only on paper, but is being looked at and worked through in different forms. The space now runs workshop on gender and confidence, works along side campaigns and campaigners such as Pınar Selek and is a meeting space for discussion.

Information and events

After chatting to some of the people involved in running Amargi the six woman of PEDAL realised this was a vital opportunity as the people involved in these movements in Istanbul were real advocates to inform us on issues in Turkey and to discuss feminism in its wider context.

We decided to meet in the space to open conversation about feminism and gender struggle here in İstanbul and wider Turkey. We also wanted to reflect and discuss internally about the gender dynamics within our travelling collective. We wanted to gain insight from Turkish woman about what might change for us as we travel further East.

From the discussion we learnt alot. Shocking in many ways to hear the extent of domestic abuse women suffer in Turkey and to realise how such dark social problems such as Turkey having a higher murder rate of woman than other suspected countries in the middle east and to realise how our supposed educated perception of these countries and issues is false.

Sitting around the big wooden table our host proclaimed we ought to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes as we delved deeper int the realities of domestic violence, honer killings, religion, gender roles, gender in activism and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisextual, transgender) movement. Opinions, experiences and advice where shared and discussed. A precious time and space that is too often neglected in our busy lives and well needed for PEDAL after 3 months on the road.

Make sure you check Amargi out if visiting Istanbul. Thanks to the brilliant crew at Amargi for giving us the opportunity to have those discussions and never letting these issues fall below the surface.

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