Nejla Işık, a Turkish village head and forest campaigner who has led a five-year struggle against deforestation designed to enable mining activities in western Turkey, has been named by the BBC as one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2024 worldwide, BBC reported.
The BBC announced on Tuesday that the theme of its 2024 list is “resilience,” acknowledging the toll this year has taken on women around the world. The list celebrates those who, through their resilience, are forging new lives and changing futures, as the world changes around them, the BBC said.
Işık was the only woman from Turkey that made her way onto the list.
The BBC’s list is divided into five categories: science, health and technology; culture and education; entertainment and sport; politics and advocacy; and climate pioneers.
BBC 100 Women included the names of women who are working to tackle “the very real impact of climate change across the globe” due to its commitment to exploring the impact of the climate emergency.
Işık has been listed among a group of climate pioneers that also included artist and climate advocate Inna Modja (Mali), farmer and trainer Naomi Chanda (Zambia) and chemical biologist Rosa Vásquez Espinoza (Peru).
Elected as the head of the İkizköy neighborhood of the Milas district in the western province of Muğla in the local elections of March 31, Işık joined forces with other local women to fight back through lawsuits and protests when the nearby Akbelen Forest faced threats from proposed coal mining from an energy company close to the government in the summer of 2023. Their efforts aimed to halt the logging that would clear the land for mining projects.
“Enough. Let our village stay where it is, let the oppression of the companies end, do not touch my water, my land, my living space,” she said in a speech after her election while vowing not to give up from her struggle to protect the area.
Muğla is home to three power plants and activists say the coal mines that supply them threaten the region’s centuries-old olive groves, a vital part of the local economy.
Following the protests earlier this year, a new decision to expropriate the land surrounding the forest for the establishment of a lignite mine site was canceled.
According to the BBC, their environmental campaign occasionally led to intense clashes between police and protesters guarding the woodland. Despite the challenges and threats, Işık and her fellow activists remained steadfast. Among the hardships they faced was a fine imposed for entering the forest without permission, though it was later rescinded.
“Women at home, in the fields, on the streets, in the struggle… they are the ones beautifying the world and undoubtedly, they will save it,” Işık was quoted by the BBC as saying.
The protestors were even targeted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who called them “marginals” posing as environmental activists.
“We just mind our business,” he said. “It is a fact that we cannot explain the campaigns carried out in our country by the love of trees and environmental sensitivity,” Erdoğan said in August 2023.
Outstanding names from the list also included rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, astronaut Sunita Williams, actress Sharon Stone, Olympic athletes Rebeca Andrade and Allyson Felix, singer Raye, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, visual artist Tracey Emin, climate campaigner Adenike Oladosu and writer Cristina Rivera Garza.
Fiona Crack, Founder of BBC 100 Women and Co-Controller of BBC World Service Languages & Deputy Global Director, said the pivotal role women have played this year in demonstrating resilience, noting their efforts in tackling disinformation, enduring the hardships of conflicts such as those in Sudan and Gaza and spearheading political change.
“At the BBC, we are proud to shine a spotlight on these extraordinary women, from high-profile figures to those whose remarkable contributions often go unrecognized,” she added.