İpek Ongun

At the autograph sessions, they always ask me: “why do you always write for the girls?”

 

And my answer is with the following remarks.

 

“If you can educate a man, you can integrate him into the society. If you can educate a girl/woman; you can integrate a family into society.”

 

Women are those who determine the future of the societies and who breed the generations. For this reason, it is very important that our maidens and women can think, who have broad prespectives and strong personalities, who are educated and who can stand on her own legs. Because they are the first and the most important model for their family.

 

This is the very reason that I always write for the maidens.

 

I want them to have the distinguishing for the importance of thinking through questioning.

 

Let them study, and have a profession.

 

I want them to stand on their own legs, without needing anybody else.

 

Let them have an equipped, educated and cultured family setting.

 

The child of an educated mother is ready for the life. The child has conceived the importance of the nature, s/he loves the trees and does not throw rubbish all over. S/he is an animal lover, s/he is aware of what kinds of pleasant feelings they add to our lives.

 

The child has learnt from the mother, how the art enlivens those simple days. The child makes his/her life meaningful maybe by playing a musical instrument, or by going to a concert, by visiting an exhibition, by painting a picture by himself, by  taking a photograph or by carving a sculpture.

 

Some of our women saw these type of beauties in their homes, they had been taught about them; some of them taught themselves on their own, just like a lone rose in the mountain.

 

And now, these women carry not only their children but also their country to the upwards. If you want examples, initially, look at the educated women of developed countries and to the lives of those women and the lives they enable; and compare these with the poor women of the underdeveloped countries and their unlived lives.

 

An educated woman breeds her son alongside her daughter, like modern man. Besides, she is a good citizen, and defends her rights. Conscious women know that they would lose a lot, if they do not defend their rights. All the matter is to reach this level.

 

I ramble and ramble, and come to the same issue.

 

To our ancestor and what he did…

To what he said…

 

How frequently we commemorate him, as we live.

 

Before so many years ago, by bearing so much troubles and misery, he worked for the women rights. He was the person saving women from the black chador, giving her a respectable personality, allowing all professions for the women; enabling the first woman theatre actress; educating the first Turkish woman pilot; and also he was the person who enabled women the right to vote and to be chosen.

 

Now, all the matter is our diligently defending these rights, which are already given to us. For us, for our daughters, for our grandchildren.

 

In the light of all these thoughts, the efforts of all women associations are very important, they are esteemed people.

 

And in this context; I, wholeheartedly, congratulate the valuable members of Mersin Soroptimist Club for their establishing Turkey’s third and world’s thirteenth Virtual Women Museum.  

 

I believe that Mersin Virtual Women Museum will give our women wider perspective and I wish good luck.

 

Ipek Ongun