BY SARAH ATİF (IR/I)
This year on March 8, Bilkent’s very own theater club put together a spectacular play highlighting the importance of women. A special production for International Women’s Day, the play was titled “If One Wants to Be an Honorable Woman She Shall Kill Herself, No Need for Other Words” and was an adaptation of Dareo Fo’s “Female Parts.”
One by one, each “distressed” woman came on stage and presented the various stereotypes women have long been subjected to. With roles ranging from an overworked housewife to a political activist who survived an attack on her life, the play enlightened its audience about the struggles and compromises women have made and are still making solely because of the gender roles they have been assigned.
When asked about the significance of the play in the context of Women’s Day, Şeyda Uykun, a fourth-year student in the Department of Economics here at Bilkent and one of the many talented contributors to the production, replied, “It has been 35 years since this play was written and unfortunately it can still be related to.” The fact that women, their capabilities and their rights are still defined by society is, indeed, the sad reality of today’s world and what the play was intended to emphasize.