Nine women detained in protest calling for free menstrual products

Duvar English

A group of women on Jan. 18 wanted to make a press statement in Ankara in front of parliament, demanding that the tax on menstrual products be abolished.

The police however prevented the women from holding their statement and detained nine of them.

The detention of the women has been caught on camera and shared on social media accounts of various women's groups.

They have said that the detained women were members of the Campus Witches and Mor Solidarity networks and were calling for menstrual products to be offered free of charge – especially in the face of recent massive price hikes.

During the detention of women, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu was holding a meeting in the southern province of Antalya's Kemer district. In the meeting, Soylu argued that the police's intervention against protests had decreased over the years.

“Between 2015-2021, the intervention against public events and demonstrations decreased from 3.2 percent to 0.6 percent. Of course, this development is not something that happened on its own,” Soylu said.

Menstrual products are subject to an 18 percent tax rate in Turkey. Women activists have been pointing out that these products are basic needs and that the poor and refugee women are unable to buy them due to their exorbitant prices.

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