🌈 My home country, Turkey, has always been blessed by women of great intelligence, intellect and talent. In the series of #AtaturksWomen, I’ve picked #BillurKalkavan. I grew up watching her interviews on tv where she would talk about toxic masculinity and how our culture helped shape it, sexual liberation of youth, reproductive rights, how romanticization of jealousy in relationships fed domestic violence, pornography’s place in society (‘I am a 50 year old woman and I love to watch porn sometimes. Due to censorship, I can’t visit those websites in my own country. Who are you tell me what I can or can’t watch if I am an adult woman?’) etc. Then the weekend tabloids we received at home in time for breakfast would show pictures of her colorful bikinis kissing her young boyfriends by the beach in the south. I asked my parents if they would take me to see Marion & Muhammed on stage back in 2000 in which Billur’s striptease was a nationwide news and they had denied saying it wasn’t a play for kids. I told this to Billur years later and she laughed with a wink: ‘Your parents were probably right... but I bet your dad was in the front row.’ She died of cancer recently and her last interview made me reflect on my own life. ‘There’re things you should remind yourself of frequently. Don’t lose the balance of taking and giving back in life. Not knowing how to accept someone’s help is a sign of vanity and vanity you should avoid. There’s a thin line between being a sensible person and a very sensitive one. The latter trait will drag you down, take control of your feelings. Remember you can’t solve all the problems alone: support your community and build with purpose. Don’t internalize, share. And lastly, receiving love starts with giving love.’