Amargi is a tree… For seven years, it has been growing with women’s love, support and understanding of each other. 

Amargi is our journey…

“living is the most important academic work.”
       

There are three meanings of Amargi.
  One of them comes from one of the oldest, patriarchal civilization. Amargi means “Freedom” in Sumerian, at the same time; “Return to Mother”
These two meanings of Amargi in a civilization in which power, slavery and violence is getting stronger each day, makes us think …
Sumerian is a dead language. It is neither spoken nor owned by any nation. That is why, it tells us the common dream of the humanity. Not only in this land, but  everywhere in this world, this name must be recalled as an exciting  experience of pain and happiness.
Last meaning of Amargi belongs to our land. It exists for seven years.
It is not static,it is not dull. It has been interpreted continuously as the word ‘freedom’ in Sumerian. It points at a never-ending journey.
Amargi is a tree grown by the women. For seven years, it has been growing with women’s love, support and understanding of each other.
Amargi is an academy in which we learn freedom and experience life.   
Amargi is a journey through which we discover and get stronger. Amargi is an organization of women. It is our tree of freedom. 

What we are trying to do?

We have a hard work… We are trying to organize our salvation in a patriarchal society. We are trying to recreate ourselves and organize our salvation in men’s world.  We are creating our own freedom spaces against all patriarchal power structures. We are fighting against all exploitation systems, militarism , rascism, hetereosexism.

We are questioning men’s mind.

 
One can track patriarchy and its structures through philosophy, politics, ways of uniting, daily life, relationships, through art to language, clothing to architecture, law to ethics and mostly through traditions. We want to spread feminism and make it stronger as an alternative against all these.
In the light of feminism, we are working for reformation of ourselves, the life and political and social relations. For this, we are  publishing a magazine and books. At the same time,  we are forming research groups , organizing activities in neighborhoods and protesting.
 
        We are getting united.
We want the women salvation movement to become widespread in houses, streets, offices, organizations, every where.Our aim is to help women’s solidarity wtihout excluding the differences.

We stand against!

We are working on improving  the feminist approach against the applications of patriarchal system.
 We participate in work platforms and common communication network made with individuals, members of the other groups who are also fighting against violence and discrimination. In every areas as political, sociological, we are standing against violence and discrimination. We are fighting for preserving freedom in legal ways and for our rights.
We are pushing the limits of concept of freedom that we have built on our own oppression. We are trying to understand the experiences that are created in all sociological dilemmas and trying to broaden the meaning of Amargi.
In our relationships, we search for freedom. We gain power to transform life and make ourselves real. We search for the impacts of power structures on us and try to overcome this impact. As revealing what is hidden in the society without having priorities, we are building projects that will enable social change.
 We are trying to create a school of life through changing our lives.

 In Amargi we learn as we change life. For this reason, we called Amargi as academy of freedom. Here there is no sign of dominant  patriarchal academies. Here there is life, movement and friendship. 

How we get united?
Amargi is an independent organization from government and political parties.
Since e we don’t want to resemble the system that we are critizing, we have no leader, and we have anyone responsible. That means no one decides for any one.
We bring our aims into life through work gropus and ateliers. At the meetings that happen in every fifteen days, we evaluate our deeds and make debates.We make decisions in consensus.
 Transparency is our primary principle.
A model of uniting  which is in constant change and changes itself according to its needs is what we approve.
We are open to all women. 

Our contact

Amargi Feminist Kitabevi

Adress: Katip Mustafa Çelebi Mah. Tel Sok. No: 16 Beyoğlu-İstanbul / Turkey
phone : 00 90 212 251 01 54
E-mail : istanbul@amargi.org.tr
Web Site : www.amargi.org.tr