Face-to-face education started in primary, secondary, high school and universities. Many university students, who were excited to return to their schools after a long hiatus, faced new problems.
The biggest of these problems is the exorbitantly increased prices of houses, dormitories and apartments.
In this news, we aim to bring the problem of female university students beyond superficiality beyond what is discussed, and that the new problem is not just about the problem of "housing".
Explaining this last situation experienced by the students, rather than the titles that deal with it as a simple 'accommodation' problem, will make the issue more understandable.
Let's exemplify this with a written schema:
University results have been announced and you have learned that you have won a university in Istanbul. Dormitory applications have started, but you have learned that you cannot settle in. Suppose you are the 9500th student in the placement order, you will have to wait for your turn.
As such, you started to think about renting a house to solve the housing problem, but you don't have a neighborhood yet in the new city. When you take into account the compulsory items such as living in a rented flat, having to pay a deposit, buying basic household items such as beds, tables, refrigerators, washing machines, natural gas, water, electricity, internet, this alternative is not the first choice due to the material and moral burden. You will have to eliminate at once.
As a third option, you start planning to stay in a relative's house until it's your turn for dormitory. But considering that the distance between home and school will take you about 4 hours a day, you will immediately realize how challenging this option is.
Since it will be far from understanding this chain of problems experienced, we will try to deal with it by explaining it with examples from specific to general.
First of all, hello. To enter the subject directly, being a woman in Istanbul is different from being a student. Namely, after graduating from university, I experienced more or less the same situation as the one we listed above, and since I could not find a solution to this problem, I, like many students, try to continue my education with a temporary solution by staying at someone else's house.
Although some problems are not visible from the outside, they start to become consuming and gnawing for people who are exposed to this problem from the inside.
Probably due to being a woman, I am always in the mood to make a statement during the hours of my arrival and departure. The recent dialogue between me and the host may show this situation more clearly.
When I came home, the woman I was staying at greeted me and asked, "I guess the lesson ended late," and I said, "Yes, it was late, the bus came a little late, too, I was tired, I walked home a little slowly, I took the road a little longer to pass the lighted road... '' I replied.
Although this dialogue seems to be over, it is actually halfway for both sides. In such an atmosphere, you realize that if you are constantly making statements, you are waiting on the alert.
My classes end at 6 pm, three days a week. When I leave the class and head home, my arrival time is around 20:00. This is certainly the most optimistic period.
The fact that I don't feel safe at all when I come home, and that I can't feel comfortable in my shelter, is a big problem on its own...
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, as a victim of this problem, I stated that it would be a correct method to explain the issue from the specific to the general. It is necessary to see the problems that a university student woman both feel and experience as a chain of problems far beyond the problem of "housing".
Having a bed in the place where you stay does not seem to solve the problem of accommodation. Starting to stay in someone else's house or in a private or KYK dormitory doesn't mean you don't have any more problems.
If you live in a dormitory, you may face many problems in providing other basic needs.
The news of the students poisoning from the food they eat in the dormitories comes up frequently.
If we take the problem a little more privately and combine it with another basic need, the frequency of the news of poisoning from the food in the dormitories is not to be underestimated.
In addition to these problems, the fact that some courses are still given online presents a new challenge as an internet quota problem for us students.
The housing problem is so rambunctious that it cannot be discussed without diverting to other issues.
While I was going to talk about the housing problem with my friend, whom I interviewed for this news, we came to the conclusion that this is only one dimension of the issue.
For example, to give other examples, not being free where you live is also a serious problem. The problem of the clothes you wear in girls' dormitories has now moved to a higher level and some clothes have been banned directly. Previously, dormitory administrations put pressure on female students because of the clothes they wore, but in recent years, the dose of this pressure has increased and the increasing pressure has started to appear as bans on female students.
I have seen female students complaining about such prohibitions from my own circle. Although it is stated that the inspections in the dormitories have increased a lot, the control in the dormitories for girls is at a depth that could be the subject of another article. It is worth expressing that this and similar points cannot be solved by increasing the number of beds, rooms or dormitories alone, and that this will remain superficial.
The Movement for Those Who Can't Shelter started to talk about this issue a lot, and at the last meeting held at Moda Sahnesi, it was emphasized that the problem was much more than a bed and a dormitory.
While I was watching the live broadcast of the Movement of the Unsheltered on October 22 on Instagram, I listened to the examples given by a speaker from his dorm room. He was talking about a place with no sun, minus the third floor, and many other problems. From the outside, it stays in one place, has a room, has a bed, but cannot shelter. We are faced with a group that constantly tries to force students to do better than bad. In your complaint for your most basic need, instead of listening to your complaint, you are directly accused of magnifying the events. As we said from the very beginning, students want much more than a bed and a room. We know that a comfortable and free life is the right of everyone, not just students, and that's why we try to raise our voices more.
The housing problem has gone beyond being a student problem. Everyone will probably have a lot to say.
We are aware that there are many more issues that we missed and could not touch on. We also believe that LGBTI+s, women and everyone, whether they are students or not, will go one step further and support this effort.
Thanks to everyone who contributed.
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