Flying Broom is a women’s civil society organization that strives to create change for a fair world where women and women’s organizations are empowered and gender equality is ensured in all areas of life. It continues this struggle through advocacy activities at local, national, and international levels. The main objective of Flying Broom is to prepare a foundation for communication, coordination, and a joint advocacy platform among women’s organizations, to establish networks and cooperation both nationally and internationally, and to carry out advocacy and access to justice activities enriched by developing technology.
Flying Broom, which started as a non-profit company at its establishment, strengthened its institutional structure with foundation status in 2017. Valuing institutional memory since its founding, Flying Broom will celebrate its 30th anniversary on November 13, 2025. Its founders, drawing from the accumulations of the women’s movement and inspired by feminist activist experiences, aimed to increase communication, cooperation, and solidarity with the momentum created by international women’s conferences and habitat processes in the 1990s.
Recognizing that gender inequality exists in every field, Flying Broom initiated Turkey’s first International Women’s Film Festival in 1998 to make women’s labor visible, especially in the field of cinema. The festival, which has become an international organization with panels, talks, and exhibitions, brings together women directors and actors from around the world in Ankara every year, strengthening communication networks and collaborations.
To empower women’s organizations, it has organized regional meetings, extended the “Local Correspondents Network” to all provinces, regularly published the Flying News Bulletin, and provided consultancy in local and national radio programs and TV shows. It has organized national NGO meetings, prepared shadow reports for international conventions, and provided voluntary guidance to women’s organizations in advocacy processes in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The selection of CEDAW champions and the development of public-NGO collaborations can be counted among these efforts.
Since 2003, Flying Broom has been one of the first organizations to bring the issue of early and forced marriages to Turkey’s agenda, recognizing it as a burning problem during meetings with women. It has conducted advocacy with public officials through well-equipped advisory boards while also empowering women’s organizations. It established the “No to Child Brides Platform” in 62 provinces and brought various institutions, from the EU Council to the Directorate of Religious Affairs, to take responsibility. Additionally, it has shared experiences with India, Bangladesh, Niger, Nigeria, and European countries; and has dedicated a special section to this issue every year at the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival, which began in 1998. It has pioneered in reaching wide audiences through short film productions, screenplay competitions, and television series.
Flying Broom evaluates the needs of the women’s movement through search meetings held every 10 years and creates strategic plans for the next 5-10 years; developing local and national joint projects in this direction. It maintains local correspondent networks through WhatsApp groups with the possibilities of digitalization, ensuring the spread of gender-perspective news especially during disaster periods.
Flying Broom has been a follower of international conventions for many years. As the secretariat of national NGO meetings, Flying Broom: First, in 2000, prepared the “BEIJING+5” joint report with the participation of 149 women’s organizations. Second, in 2003, it hosted the CEDAW shadow report preparation meeting with the participation of 453 women from 81 provinces. Third, in 2013, it organized the “Women’s NGO Strategy and Future Planning” meeting with the participation of 600 women from 81 provinces. Flying Broom participates in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings. It has become one of the two women’s organizations on the Executive Board of the European Civil Society Region in the Beijing+30 process.
For the last 10 years, it has been conducting intensive work in the field of “women’s access to justice,” which is seen as an important need. Strategic litigation processes have been developed with a feminist legal approach, and cooperation has been made with the Turkish Bar Association Women’s Rights Unit (TÜBAKKOM). Under the “Decision, Not Fate” project, decision-writing workshops have been organized in many provinces, and tens of thousands of trainee lawyers have been trained. Additionally, a guidebook on girls’ access to justice has been prepared and distributed to all bar associations.
With the “THROUGH ART” project (a 3-year program) focusing on the transformative power of art, activities and meetings are being held to empower women and girls through art, in collaboration with 5 project partners and 11 universities. The aim is to establish solidarity networks among young people through culture and art-focused studies.
Today, Flying Broom, which establishes close relationships especially with university students, organizes educational series on gender equality and access to justice, aiming to raise awareness in areas such as violence, legal rights, representation inequality, visibility, and production. With its representatives in many universities, it conducts culture and art activities from a gender perspective and aims to grow together with young people.
Flying Broom is preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary in November 2025. These 30 years are not just a calendar; they are the memory of labor, courage, and solidarity. Being together, empowering together means continuing the success of the women’s struggle.
