ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME, KEY ACTION 2

CAPACITY BUILDING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Furthering International Relations Capacities and Intercultural Engagement to

Unit 6: Understanding Ethnic and cultural diversity –

TRANSCRIPT

Merve: Actually, I'm a vegan who has queer identity. From my perspective, I care about
freedom on earth. All animals, including humans, deserve to live without all forms of
exploitation, of a cruelty of animals for food or for anything else etc. and also need to care
about planets and against the climate change. Actually, they're all connected to each other
for me. And I can describe myself as a non-binary person. And these are maybe different
subculture topics but also, they have an intersection. Like what, I can describe that, but first,
I want to talk about if being involved into this can be a subculture or not. For example, in
England, there's a Court decision, it’s new. Veganism is a philosophical belief that's why they
had that decision. But I’m asking myself if feminism or being against child abuse or being
against human slavery could be a philosophical belief. For me not but also, I can understand
that being a vegan or being some right defender would be a subculture issue. For example,
when I started to be vegan at work my manager every day and every day at lunch was asking
why I don't participate with them, why I don’t eat animals. Or it would be me my health is
worse or “your tan is so white, you should go to a doctor”, “you will die” blah blah blah. But
every day, every day and every day. And in the beginning, I explained nicely and tried to
explain everything I know, but after a while that would be very annoying and actually a very
bleak thing. Then after one day I yelled at my manager “Why are you doing this? Because I
believe actually in my perspective, actually I'm an activist for this. So, I should ask you, why
are you eating animals? Why are you eating killed animals and how can you do that?” and
blah blah blah. So, after that it stopped. For example, in my relatives, my father was first
telling me bad things about that nonsense. Like “you will die or your health will go bad” blah,
blah, blah. After a while among our relatives, my father would defend me. In a while that
changed, I can see that. So, I hope that maybe it today being vegan could be a subculture.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 1
Vegans have some similar experiences and so yes, we can say that, maybe for that reason
there are subculture issues, but actually the main topic is about the animal rights. So, when
we are going to some cafes and restaurants, okay, that's good, they have also vegan options.
But then they care about vegan people, but actually, I hope that they would care about the
animals not the vegan people because the main idea is that. So maybe that will change and I
hope maybe today we can say a subculture but in a couple of years, maybe in five or 10 years
that it will be like the human slavery issue. Okay today in the world, in some places also
human slavery is still there. But also, it's illegal. So that will change, I hope. Also, I want to
mention about the intersection. For example, as a queer if among vegan activists there is
some homophobic, misogynistic, sexist person, me and some people like me warn or try to
avoid that person. Some people in vegan activism say that's generally those who have the
main privilege. These people say that I or some people hurt the animal rights action because
I or the other people can walk on 8th march or on Pride with non-vegan people because these
people also hurt animals. Okay, maybe, but so you can tolerate the abuse you can tolerate the
homophobic, the transphobic or the other issues. Actually, this this is a very big problem for
me because all the rights are so connected. The violence and patriarchy or the power is
coming to the same place. So, we should come together and actually understand the
intersectionality and act against all of them together and so achieve freedom on earth for all
beings, not only humans, not only animals or not only the planet. You can use some cruelty
free cosmetics or some cleaning stuff, but also, they will hurt the planet. So, you can say for
me that these are vegan in my perspective, but not all vegans or not all people are at the same
page, we all think differently. So, actually some subcultures or other personalities, I think,
they will add other perspectives and inclusive, all the rights and for all of us.
Dr. Cemre Erciyes: Thank you very much.
Merve: You’re welcome.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views
only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein. 2