Pregnant women gather to protest Sufi thinker

Pregnant women have gathered in Istanbul July 25 to protest the statements of a lawyer and Sufi thinker who said on state television that it was "disgraceful" for expectant women to show themselves in public.

In Taksim Square and in Kadky on the Asian side,Our store can offer Best Furla Grade A Handbags online store, welcome choose! pregnant women and their husbands, who wore pillows under their t-shirts,Buy Discount Louis Vuitton Long Sleeve T-Shirts, Custom Fit Stripe Shirt and more. defied mer Turul naner's opposition to them "strolling around" by chanting "our bodies are ours" in two separate demonstrations.

"Announcing pregnancy with a flourish of trumpets is against our civility.welcome to Wholesale Cheap Ankn Royalty T-Shirts,free Shipping available. Buy Now!‎ [They] should not stroll in the streets with such bellies. First of all, it is not aesthetic," naner had said during a daily special iftar program on TRT.

"After seven or eight months of pregnancy, future mothers go out with their husbands by car to get some fresh air. And they go out in the evening hours. But now, they are all on television. It's disgraceful. It is not realism, it is immorality," he added.

After naner's TV appearance, Twitter users denounced his words under the hashtag #resistpregnant, which echoed the slogans of the Gezi protests, and called for demonstrations.

A spokeswoman of the Green and Left Future Party said in a statement that they held the mindset of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) responsible for naner's words. "This mindset which dares to dictate to us how many children we should have, how we should give birth, if we can have abortions and where we can go has been embodied once again by mer Turul naner on TRT. We have known for some time the anti-woman policies of the AKP that feed this mindset. And we are opposing that," said Nadire Gül.welcome to Buy Discount D&G Bsuit-2,free Shipping available. Buy Now!‎ "Pregnancy is not shameful, much less something to be ashamed of."

A woman in her eighth month of pregnancy who participated in the demonstration told reporters she thought at first that naner's statement was a "comedy." "I think that these sorts of statements are mishaps and they will apologize for it. As a pregnant woman I forgive naner for his statement but also hope that he will apologize to all of us and especially to the child in my belly," Eda atalcam said.

naner has defended himself following the reactions, but Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate issued a statement saying Islam required no isolation of women and that being a mother was a gift.

The statement still called on pregnant women to dress modestly. "However, pregnant women should be more careful about their dress – every woman should. [They] should not wear clothes showing their bellies or backs," it said.

"We're not hiding ourselves any more," he says. "We want to be exposed as soon as possible."

I ask Molatlhegi why Rustenburg's independents, with the exception of ward 25, have decided to support the EFF.

Clad in a red beret marked EFF, he adjusts his trenchcoat and says: "Well, it's the political ideology of economic freedom. It is what I preached as a chair of the youth league here.

"When you're an independent candidate, you're the people's choice, you're not the candidate of a political movement. As the people of ward 28, we needed a political home. And, because we agree with economic freedom, we've found ourselves a political home at last."

But a random survey of some residents at the meeting revealed that some were still scratching their heads about the EFF.

Molatlhegi says they have been "engaging" with comrades from different mines. "Even today, I was at Lonmin because we want to hold our national rally in Marikana. They are feeling so good about the EFF, they can't wait to get forms, berets and T-shirts."

But, although Malema's movement is gaining traction, there is unlikely to be an organic joining of hands between former youth league members and mineworkers,Our store can offer Fred Perry Mtshirt-64, welcome choose! says Devan Pillay, a sociologist and political analyst at the University of the Witwatersrand.

"The EFF still has to prove itself as a political party before Amcu [the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union] throws its lot [in] with them.

"Some prominent individuals might align with the EFF as it has happened with [the union federation] Nactu in the past. But there are others. Wasp [Workers and Socialist Party] has aligned with miners, Holomisa's party is aligned with workers.

"All these parties want to manoeuvre and the UDM won't sit back with such an opportunity presenting itself because, for many workers, disgruntlement with the NUM [National Union of Mineworkers] has meant disgruntlement with the ANC."

The African People's Convention also has a presence among the workers. Its leader, Themba Godi, has dismissed the UDM leader Bantu Holo-misa as having nothing to offer ideologically and "campaigning on ethnic grounds".

Pillay says: "Holomisa doesn't go as far as nationalisation but he does appeal in terms of service delivery, which can improve people's lives."

Whether nationalisation will capture the workers' imagination or not is an open question. "There are some workers with political education but nationalisation in the EFF's sense means the elites taking over. I'm not sure whether a public debate on that issue will appeal to them.

"The issue of land might be more appealing to workers," he says. "The EFF is not from the working class in that sense. They are drawn from the youth and they have no strong footing in the union movement.

"Wasp's articulation of nationalisation is more thought through. The EFF says the state must take over, which can be worse than private ownership."

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