Thousands of women demonstrated in the streets of Turkish cities Saturday to mark International Women’s Day, protesting inequality and violence against women.

On the Asian side of Istanbul, a rally in Kadikoy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine. The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared 2025 the Year of the Family. Protesters pushed back against the idea of women’s role being confined to marriage and motherhood, carrying banners reading “Family will not bind us to life” and “We will not be sacrificed to the family.”

Critics have accused the government of overseeing restrictions on women’s rights and not doing enough to tackle violence against women.

Erdogan in 2021 withdrew Turkey from a European treaty, dubbed the Istanbul Convention, that protects women from domestic violence. Turkey’s We Will Stop Femicides Platform says 394 women were killed by men in 2024.

“There is bullying at work, pressure from husbands and fathers at home and pressure from patriarchal society. We demand that this pressure be reduced even further,” Yaz Gulgun, 52, said.

The women’s day events were the first planned public demonstrations since the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced a ceasefire last week, bringing hope for an end to a 40-year conflict with the Turkish state.

Crowds in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast, heard a message from the group’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan in which he said the “women’s issue is bigger than the Kurdish issue.”

Gultan Kisanak, a Kurdish politician who was released from prison last year after being convicted of terrorism charges, addressed a rally near the city center. “A democratic society that does not accept women’s will cannot be built. Therefore, women’s struggle for freedom is the cornerstone of our people’s struggle for freedom and peace,” she said.

Many women were expected to gather in the evening on the European side of Istanbul for a Feminist Night March despite a ban. In recent years, authorities have blocked efforts by women to demonstrate in Taksim Square, Istanbul’s traditional gathering point for rallies.

Nearby metro stations were closed from the early afternoon, and streets, including one of the city’s main shopping thoroughfares, were sealed off with barriers.

The Beyoglu district governor’s office said the ban was enforced to prevent “actions that may disrupt public order and social peace.”