Dilara Findikoglu’s New Photo Series Is a Powerful Ode to Turkish Women

Over the past few days, followers of Dilara Findikoglu might have noticed the cult London designer posting a series of mysterious documents to Instagram, all speaking of a new age of female authority. On Monday came a newspaper front page, its headline boldly reading: Rise! Dilara invades Mesopotamia. (Written underneath: “The land belongs to matriarchal power once again.”) Yesterday, the Turkish-born designer shared a straight-up manifesto, serving as a call to arms for a new legion of sisters to join her in this crusade. “This is the rising call of matriarchal power,” she wrote. “The day has come.”

Whether it’s her richly embroidered blood red corsets that hark back to medieval queens, the crucifixes, pentacles, and Hamsa hands that hang as goddess-like bejeweled embellishments, or Lily McMenamy dancing as a modern-day Salome at one of her theatrical presentations, Findikoglu has always used subversive, politically-minded women from past and present as a starting point. But with the new short film and photo series this manifesto was introducing, Findikoglu is weaving a story of female empowerment that hits closer to home—and one firmly rooted in the present day.

“There’s a really high rate of brutal female murders in Turkey, particularly over the past five or ten years, which I only started hearing about properly when I was back here during lockdown,” Findikoglu explains. “It’s mostly husbands or boyfriends that these women are trying to break up with. The government doesn’t really do anything about it, to be honest with you, and these men end up getting away with it.”

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