Ece Devrim: I Strongly Resisted Forced Sex Work

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Ece became a paraplegic when a taxi crashed into her on the pavement while she was standing to get street food on Şişli Halaskargazi Street in İstanbul in 2014.

She earns her living by selling lighters, pencils and tissues on the streets in Şişli in her wheelchair, which was brought from Germany with the support of the Laborist Movement Party (EHP) and the We Will Stop Femicides Platform.

In recent months, donations were collected to be able to pay for Ee Devrim's rent for one year in a campaign launched by feminist activist Dilâra Gürcü, who had previously carried out a donation campaign for trans woman İhsan Hala.

We talked about many things including her life, her struggle, Ülker Street, rape, politics and LGBTI activism since she came from Munich to İstanbul at the age of 14.

From Munich to İstanbul

I am a 50-year-old trans woman. I am the child of a family who went to Germany with immigration status. When I started to get to know my own body at age 14, I felt that I was different from everyone else.

My father was like an absolute dictator in the family. I think that is why an urge has developed inside me to struggle against dictators.

I discovered my sexual orientation with time and I left home due to my family and my father’s pressure. My father took me to a psychiatrist to change me. The doctors told him this situation wouldn’t change. He resolved it by sending me to my relatives in Turkey.

I was on the street for 2-3 years, they raped me too. Men see rape as a right for themselves if you are trans or a street walker.

My father was a dictator

First, I came to İzmir and stayed with my aunt. I was wandering around with my male cousin day after day. He was taking me to certain places with the hope that I could change. His intention was to make me a man, so, he was taking me to nightclubs.

There was the Rita Club in İzmir. It was mostly visited by homosexuals. He took me there and that day he said to me, “ah, now I understand your style.” It was 1982-84. My cousin sent me to İstanbul by bus to have me go to Germany. In those times, there were flights to Germany only from İstanbul.

I called my father from İstanbul, I said I arrived and I was waiting to get on the plane. He responded again like a dictator and we fought on the phone. “I am not coming,” I said and hung up.

I haven’t seen him in person since that day. It has been 35 years now. I called him from time to time as a decent person but he didn’t want to meet me. He most recently called me when he had an accident. “Hello, this is your father,” he said. I said, “which father,” though I recognized him.

I said “What happened?” and he started to talk. “I am going to the Umrah, would you give me your blessing,” he said. I said, “I can give you my blessing if you see it as your right in your conscience.” Then he said, “I’ve heard you had an accident, I hope you get better soon” and hung up the phone.

I lived-in with my rapist

I was 15 when I was raped for the first time. I was living on the streets in İstanbul. It was during the time when İstiklal Street was open to traffic. I started to live one of the three men who raped me because he saved me from living on the streets.

Turkey had just seen a coup at that time, you can imagine how difficult those times were. Now I laugh at that situation because I had to live with my rapist for two years. My rapist’s name was psychopath Bülent. He was earning his living by selling books on the streets. He found me a dishwashing job at a restaurant. I improved my skills in time and started DJing at clubs.

At police stations…

One day I met with some trans women at the Fish Market. A trans woman named Canan took me to Pürtelaş street. I had to start sex work. Then Vice Squad director Doğan Karakaplan came, raided our homes; we were subjected to all sorts of torture at the police stations.

They were taking us to Belgrad Forest, raping and beating us, and stealing our belongings and leaving us naked. And we were again being raped until we got home. After people were dispersed from Pürtelaş and Ülker streets, I started DJing again. Along the line I enrolled in the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) and started politics.

Who wants to commercialize his/her own body?

The only thing that trans women are accused of is sex work, but among trans women, we have many educated friends who don’t want to commercialize their bodies.

No one wants to commercialize his or her body. One can unwittingly become accustomed to this exploitation. No trans woman dreams of sex work.

The system doesn’t give any chances to trans women other than prostitution. I never accept sex work, because this is a thing that the society tries to impose on us.

I call gigolos, street walkers, and trans women who became prostitutes “people who are forced into sex work in exchange for money.” Since the most fundamental rights of these people are prevented by the society and system, they are left with sex work.

The biggest supporter of the capitalist system is the patriarchy. For this reason, prostitution operations are usually carried out against women and trans women. They are never launched against male sex workers because this is the system’s own order.

I strongly resisted forced sex work

I strongly resisted selling my body. I did many jobs from dishwashing to DJing. I even continued courses at İŞ-KUR in order to find a job, and I became a health care worker.

We Will Stop Femicides Platform Spokesperson Dr. Gülsüm Kav helped me in my studies. I served my internship working with children with Down’s syndrome at a private hospital in Beykoz. The hospital management appreciated my work a lot and they’d increased my working hours to five days a week.

But I couldn’t continue after my internship was over. I applied for a job everywhere but I was rejected by all of the hospitals in İstanbul due to my trans identity.

Afterwards, I was forced to start sex work again. After the accident, I’ve begun to earn my life by selling lighters on the street in a wheelchair, which was bought by the Laborist Movement Party.

The greatest system of exploitation is in the family

Society’s greatest system of exploitation is in the family. I believe family bonds are nonsense. The system supports this family structure in order to be able to exploit it.

For instance, why do they keep calling on us to make three children? Is it because they care? No, it’s not. Wars have begun in our time and capitalism is collapsing, and new slaves are needed to send to war.

They wage wars for the reconstruction of the capitalist order to make the system function.

I am a politician, not an LGBTI activist

We, especially Demet Demir, have paid heavy prices but Demet was sent to prison just because she defended LGBTI rights.

Violence, changing color and form, still continues. I am a politician, not an LGBTI activist because I think I have to struggle for the rights of all oppressed peoples.

The system has undermined the associations working for LGBTI rights. The associations as well as the opposition media that cross with the system are being closed.

There is no difference between 1980 and 2017. In those times, journalists couldn’t cover trans murders due to political pressure. Trans women cannot be organized like women’s movements do because they are apolitical and their associations are undermined by the system.

We have to say no to this autocratic regime on behalf of all oppressed peoples. Furthermore, a large portion of the governing party’s grassroots will even say no. They are undertaking referendum campaign by declaring the people who say no to be terrorists. They’ve built fear in the people. The Gezi spirit will live in the referendum. This is the last exit before the bridge. May the oppressed unite and say no against war and yes for peace right now. Let me repeat, let us say no for a free world. (MD-EU/NU/HK)

Next- Şahika:You don't get to choose to be a trans woman

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