Çiğdem Mater is a film-maker, producer and journalist. She is one of the seven people who were sentenced to 18 years in prison and arrested for “aiding the attempted overthrow of the government” in the Gezi (2013) retrial in 2022.
Sevgi Soysal (1936-1976) was a Turkish and German writer. She was one of many people imprisoned for political reasons by the military junta following the coup of March 19th 1971. She spent eight months at the Yıldırım Bölge Women’s Ward in Ankara and over two months in forced exile in Adana. She wrote about her imprisonment inYıldırım Bölge Kadınlar Koğuşu which was published in 1976. She died of cancer the same year.
30th of September 2022
My dear Sevgi,
Although I was born after you left this world, you have been a friend and companion to women as myself, as well as men, across generations.
Sat at the plastic table which is the only personal space I have, I am writing you this letter from my prison ward that is a lot like but also nothing like Yıldırım Bölge. Today is your birthday, and it has been exactly 50 years since the publication of Yıldırım Bölge. I have in front of me a glass of water containing the grounds of the Turkish coffee I made with a kettle. You can’t tell fortune in a glass cup. Actually, there are coffee cups at the canteen but they’re too big, the water glass is a good size.
As you can understand, the conditions have changed. You would be right if you said “As they should, it’s been 50 years.” But on the other hand, it’s as if nothing has changed at all. That’s why I kept exclaiming ‘aaa’, ‘aaaaa’, ‘aaaaaa’ as I was re-reading Women’s Ward of Yıldırım Bölge years later, this time with a whole new outlook obviously.
My dear Sevgi, I am writing to you from the Bakırköy women’s prison. This is a reknown women’s prison. At the moment, we are about 1300 women in this prison made for 520 people, 1300 women. A large part of us is here due to judicial reasons but there are political wards as well. We were arrested in the “Gezi Trial”.
Between you and me, I think they didn’t really know what to do with us. They kept us in cells for the first two months, then put us all three in a ward together. We are staying in a ward that was conceived for three people but can be turned into a 12-people ward when there is a “rise in population”. Mine, Mücellâ and me. Since we’re not as crowded as you were, we don’t have a lot of funny, joyful, painful, sad, hilarious stories as you did, but we’re not too bad. We gather stories as we can, often thinking of you, saying “Sevgi would have written this so well.”
Once in prison, you understand that no matter how “aware” you think you are, it is absolutely not the case. That’s also why I immediately went back to The Women’s Ward of Yıldırım Bölge. I can’t express how reading about you and your experience has opened my eyes, I am ever so grateful to you.
Luckily, you are not alone. There are two other brilliant women who I’m sure have read you and are your companions, they make me see a bit clearer. You don’t know either of them but I’m grateful to these two women as well.
İpek Merçil and Seçil Doğuç Ergin. For 14 months in 2011 and 2012, İpek and Seçil have spoken to prisoners, convicts and guards of this prison. This lead to a wonderful book titled Dört Duvar Kadina ne Yapar [How do four walls affect women?]. The book thoroughly answers this question and evokes how women survive in a prison system designed with only men in mind.
Conversations about any topic that comes to mind, with over 100 prisoners and 40 guards, ranging from the relationship between confinement and time & space to the daily experience of women in prison, from faith to motherhood, sexuality, deep poverty. Your observations are turning 50 this year, Seçil and İpek talk about 10 years ago, I’m experiencing 2022.
[…]
Sevgi, considering what you, Seçil and İpek say, it hasn’t changed all that much. They have inserted women within a system that was completely designed, thought and put into place for men and said “This should work for you too.” They didn’t see, still don’t see that it doesn’t work, and that it will never work. There’s no intention or effort put into place.
Here, I’ll tell you one last story to make you laugh. In prison, men can give laundry to wash every week whereas women can only give their laundry to wash once a month. Why? Because men can’t wash laundry but women, of course, can. Ah and also, the barber comes to men’s prisons every two week to cut their hair. Here, we’re given scissors once a month and told to do it ourselves. I would say “they are conviced women are more capable, that’s why they do it this way” but I can’t help laughing.
My dear Sevgi, letters tend to be longer when you write from prison, but you have to admit, I couldn’t have written a shorter letter to the one and only Sevgi Soysal.
Happy birthday Sevgi.
Happily, you wrote.
Happily, you understood and shared.
With all my gratitude and affection,
Çiğdem
İSTASYON editions EN 
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