“In this article, I will start from a politician's discourse claiming that the protection of this country depends on the belief/faith, and then I will mention about the emergence of gender inequality, even in the earthquake case. I am hearing what you say: ‘Gender inequality in the earthquake, do not exaggerate it’. Let us not be biased and read.”
Recently, our country has gotten over a disaster in Elazığ and Malatya. An earthquake in which dozens of our citizens died, thousands of people were injured, caused loss of property and forced the region in the depth of winter. Do not worry, as many media organs stated earlier, I will not ask why we had not prepared, or I will not question how our earthquake taxes evaporated. In this article, I will talk about a politician saying “This country is protected by the belief/faith of those who say,' I have no headscarf now, therefore do not rescue me from the rubble of the collapsed building’.” After that, I will go towards gender inequality issues. Of course, we respect the belief of the aunt, who was rescued from under the rubble of the collapsed building and who asked for a headscarf at the time of her rescue. It is not up to me to talk about the correctness or the wrongness of her belief, the rightness or injustice of the aunt's actions at the time of the earthquake recovery. Many platforms such as ‘Ekşisözlük’ have already discussed this issue in depth. (See: https://eksisozluk.com/basim-acik-beni-cikarmayin--6354704?p=1) As a psychologist, I can say that it may have given such a reaction depending on the trauma she has experienced. Otherwise, I think that when the person is closest to death, he/she should think about his/her life, not his/her clothes. Our simplest instinct is: survival, is it not? But the belief of the aunt was put forward as a political material. As a result of this political discourse, the exclusion of science can be discussed for a long time and the following suggestions can be made: If we believe that this country is just protected by belief/faith, let us remove all the military and defence systems. If we believe that this country is just protected by belief/faith, let us stop all the works related to earthquakes. If we believe that this country is just protected by belief/faith, let us close all the hospitals. It did not make sense, right? Actually, there is a lot to be written but I want to touch on a completely different point, inspired by what the aunt said. The relationship between earthquake and gender inequality… As you know, we generally state gender inequality in terms of the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and higher education, the proportion of women working in non-agricultural wage jobs, and the proportion of women in parliament. Well, have you ever evaluated this according to the moment of disaster or earthquake? Let us start it over, have you ever observed the different reactions of men and women at the moment of disaster and afterwards? If you have not observed it, let us think about women who are looking for clothes in order not to look inappropriate during and after the earthquake. Our mothers, grandmothers, neighbours and ourselves… We may have been caught in the earthquake in the bathroom or we could be without a bra during an earthquake. We may have taken off our headscarf or we may be sleeping with a sexy nightgown. At the time of the disaster, how many of us would be in a hurry to wear cardigans to cover our braless breasts or bare legs while men are just trying to run away with pants (maybe even naked) - without even thinking for a second-. The answer is simple: In social expectations, it is natural for a man to be naked under all conditions, but the woman must be well-behaved even during a disaster, right? So, the man can escape in every way, even if the woman dies under the rubble of the collapsed building while searching for something to wear. I wonder how many women officers are there to help those under the rubble? Over five? Maybe. In terms of gender inequality, it can demonstrate women's employment rate for post-disaster search and rescue work! In a household, do you think it is the woman or the "head of the house" (!) man who knows what to do during and after the earthquake, at least where the assembly point is. How many women do you think are conscious about these issues? If there are some meetings regarding disaster or earthquake in the apartment or neighbourhood (which I do not think so) what do you think it is woman or man who will be participant? Let me not mention the difficulties that women will experience after the disaster, for example, the difficulties in using the common areas. How many women can get out of the shared bathroom with just a towel covered her body and walk up to her tent such as in casual clothes. A man wraps his towel around his waist, and he can walk comfortably, can he not? We came again from the headscarf to gender inequality. Meanwhile, we talked about politicians who put us in fools, a matter of faith and an earthquake.