Onlyherstory is an oral history project documenting the lives of “ordinary” women in Turkey, published on Instagram and the project website, in Turkish and English, and often Kurdish. It aims to create an online memory archive of women’s experiences in Turkey regardless of the story owners’ ethnicity, religious creed, or locality. 

At the same time, these stories of deceased or senior women reveal significant clues as to the impact of socio-economic and political developments in Turkey in the 19th and 20th centuries. The women of Onlyherstory shed an intimate light on ever-present issues such as migration, domestic abuse, unaccounted labour and economic freedom, hierarchical dynamics of marriage and motherhood, and physical and mental health.

The stories are relayed by loving family members and then published on our page after a meticulous editorial process, in the first-person literary voice.