Whether living in Turkey's rural southeast or its urban west, all people, but especially women, have rights that need protecting, the director of a Turkish civil-society organization has said. Turkish civil society is strong and dynamic, according to Gökçe Tüylüoğlu, the executive director of the Open Society Foundation, an organization that focuses on many human-rights issues, but especially those pertaining to women and gender. Despite her young age, Tüylüoğlu has been heading the foundation since August 2009. But she is no newcomer when it comes to civil society and management; she has been dedicating herself to nongovernmental causes in Turkey for a number of years since completing schooling abroad. The 1999 Marmara earthquake was a turning point for her, as it was for Turkish civil society in general, Tüylüoğlu told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview March 3.

She first joined one of the nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, working in the earthquake region on a voluntary basis. Later, she jumped at the chance to become a full-time worker because of what she called the feeling of "empowerment and ability to make real changes in the world."

Other activities at the Istanbul Policy Center and Bilgi University ultimately set her on the path to becoming the executive director of the Open Society Institute. The "determined and idealistic" Tüylüoğlu would probably be doing her NGO work for free - but the fact that she now draws a wage for doing what she loves makes it all the better.

Tüylüoğlu said the women's movement in Turkey is strong on its own merits, not because of European Union support, because women are very successful at uniting around a common goal, such as reform to the Turkish Penal Code. "Thirty out of 38 amendments proposed by the women's platform were approved - that's quite a change," she said.

The NGO director said there is no substantial difference between a woman living in a remote part of southeast Anatolia who cannot leave the house unaccompanied by a male relative and an urban, educated, middle-class woman involved in a toxic relationship she cannot leave due to the negative opinions associated with divorced women. "I can't really separate one from another," she said.

For the past five years, the Open Society Foundation has been supporting projects presented to it by KAMER, a Diyarbakır-based women's organization with branches in 23 eastern and southeastern Anatolian provinces.

KAMER has been very active in bringing about awareness about crimes committed in the name of honor, which Tüylüoğlu called "one of the most brutal human-rights violations." Among the KAMER projects supported by the foundation are 14-week-long training seminars that seek to raise women's awareness of legal rights, women's sexuality, communication and counseling.

Apart from these trainings directed specifically at women, KAMER also operates in close contact with the gendarmerie, the police, imams and village leaders to foster greater sensitivity toward gender-based violence in the areas in which the organization is active. As a result of KAMER's efforts, the gendarmerie now keeps the identity of female victims of domestic abuse secret instead of simply forcing the women to return home.

In addition to gender issues, the foundation also supports research and projects in a number of priority areas: EU accession, education, decreasing regional disparities, disadvantaged groups, media and civil society. Research is an important part of civil-society activism, according to Tüylüoğlu, because it helps both in understanding the problems of society and designing appropriate measures to solve such injustices.

Regardless of their repression in Turkish society in relative or absolute terms, Tüylüoğlu said, "[All groups,] be it Roma, people with HIV/AIDS, people with mental disabilities, refugees, women or [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or] LGBT groups should have the same level of voice in society."

The foundation's philosophy is based on the assumption that there is "no ultimate truth, that there is no general, all-encompassing definition of anything," precisely because the organization supports all kinds of rights-based groups, she said.