Conceptions of honor and honorable behavior in Turkey clearly don’t include attitudes toward disabled people. This has been witnessed incessantly in the media and in daily life by the experiences of disabled people and their treatment by society, by their government, and now by a notorious tweet. (For a laundry list of despicable behaviors, see [...]
From Hurriyet: Şafak Pavey, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has become a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Anatolia news agency reported today. Pavey, the first woman with disabilities to be elected to the Turkish Parliament, also became the first Turkish parliamentarian to [...]
I’ve written about my dear friend and now member of Turkey’s parliament Şafak Pavey before (here is her story) . On Thursday, she received the US State Department 2012 International Women of Courage Award along with nine other women at the US State Department. (There is a video below of Şafak receiving her award; click here for a video [...]
This post has been updated: It appears that the proposal to allow women to wear trousers in parliament in 2009 was overturned, despite the news article to the contrary. This is the first time it appears to have reached a stage where it will pass. In this case, to accommodate Safak Pavey, who may become [...]
At precisely 9:03 am on Friday, May 24, 1996, the attractive blonde woman on track thirteen at the Zurich station slipped into the gap between the platform and the moving train…. Read about CHP’s newly elected Member of Parliament, Şafak Pavey, the amazing trajectory of her life, and her plans for Turkey. Click here.
An interview with Şafak Pavey, newly elected CHP member of parliament representing Istanbul. Pavey, former head of the Secretariat for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the United Nations Human Rights Office, is herself handicapped (see here). Click here for the full article. It gives Şafak Pavey goosebumps to talk about [...]
A new study of the disabled in Turkey, carried out in collaboration with the Prime Ministry’s Handicapped and Human Rights Directorate, revealed the following: 31 percent of disabled people encounter constant discrimination in their work life. 77 percent of disabled people have difficulty accessing pedestrian areas and public parks. 72 percent of people with disabilities in [...]
Şafak Pavey is one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. She is charismatic in the true sense of the word, attracting people to her — and to her many good works — by the force of her personality, her knowledge, her charm, and through sheer admiration of her perseverance. Şafak is now coordinator of [...]
An Istanbul-based association started a new project for mentally and physically disabled people providing them a help line through which they can call for answers to their legal concerns. The Human Rights in Mental Health Initiative, or RUSİHAK, started the project titled “Human rights for mental disorders, too,” which will answer all legal questions from [...]
A group of handicapped citizens staged a brief protest at the entrance to the Mecidiyekoy metrobus station the other day. Within five minutes, they were almost crushed by the crowd and subjected to taunts like, “Why are you out on the street anyway?” They asked police to protect them. Police reply: “You did this, why [...]