Özlem Ezer: The Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Award is a courageous and feminist move. - Part 2

What made you decide to use academic style and creative writing together?
The entire article began and ended within a week, but previously, I had read books that said combining the academic style and creative writing was not so “offensive”!  However, most of those books were printed in North America and Europe.  That is why the Sabancı University Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Award was my greatest incentive.

Did you have a difficult time integrating the voices of the author and the narrator?  What did you do to overcome this problem?
We can say that language could pose an obstacle for the “conventional” reader.  I did not see this as a problem.  The article ends with “we”, which may be interpreted as a solution for voices that cannot be integrated.

Considering Adalet’s story, can we say that women are sometimes obstructed by other, authoritarian women?
This is strong wording but we can say that women in different regions and industries do have such an inclination.  What matters is to analyze its root causes and eliminate them.  Those who don’t want to see successful competitors around themselves either lack self-esteem or are envious, none of which is gender-specific.

What do you think of the Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Awards?
A very courageous and feminist move.  I had not written an academic paper with this much enthusiasm in years.  Last year, on the 40th day that Dicle had left us, I had written a letter to her and sent it to the Sunday supplement of a mainstream newspaper.  According to the email from the editor, they liked the letter, but did not include it in the agenda.  On the day of the awards, I gave that letter to Dicle’s mother.  We had a pleasant conversation with her father.  We received valuable lessons from them both.  This is why the award is very special to me.

Anything you wish to add?
Thanks to Dicle and the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum, the lives of two more girls in the Southeast will change.  We will sponsor the education of two girls in 2011 in the name of Dicle.  When Adalet’s book is in print in the next 10 to 15 years, we will all remember how motivating the name Dicle Koğacıoğlu is for women.