Zeynep Akın/JINHA

ÊLIH - In the largely Kurdish city of Batman, in Turkey, women forced to work in textile factories for lack of job opportunities are calling for regulations.

In the city of Batman, textile factories have popped up under the name of "investment" in the region. Lacking other work opportunities, women are working under difficult conditions in the unregulated factories.

Tuba Sevim has worked in a factory in Batman for 11 years, working ten-hour days under poor conditions. She reports that salaries are low and often paid five to six months late--and then only after workers object. In the end, when the wages arrive, they are underpaid.

Saturday is allegedly a day off at the factory, but Tuba and her fellow workers are forced to work without pay on Saturdays. When officials come, the factory owners cover up the Saturday work. However, Tuba says the worst condition is the child labor.

"In the West, there's at least some regulation. Because there's none here, there are a lot of children being employed. There are 12, 13-year-old children, and not just a few of them," said Tuba.

"The bosses and the supervisors they empower are oppressive. They see people as machines and they yell and shout at the smallest mistake or the loss of one minute. From the start of the work day until the end, their eyes are on us so we can't work comfortably. We can't even turn left or right," said Tuba. Tuba described how supervisors lock the bathroom doors to keep workers from using the bathroom during working hours.

Tuba said that women are particularly exploited in Batman. While they once used to travel to the cotton, tobacco and hazelnut fields to work, now they work in the factories that have been opened as part of the new "investment" in the province. While men have the option of working elsewhere, women can't leave the factories because there are no other areas where they can work.

"They say, 'now there are work opportunities,' but at this point they should see what kind of opportunities, what kinds of conditions these are," said Tuba.