Gender-based violence, despite being recognized as a violation of human rights and, more importantly, a crime, continues to be a growing problem worldwide. Partner violence is one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women, both globally and in Turkey. According to the 2019 data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Turkey has the highest rate of violence against women among European and OECD countries, with a rate of 38%. Almost 4 out of 10 women experience male violence at some point in their lives (Source: OECD 2019 Report on Women Who Experienced Physical and/or Sexual Violence by Their Current or Former Intimate Partners). Furthermore, 1 in 2 women experiences emotional violence, and 1 in 3 women is subjected to economic violence. The rate of violence among married women is 12% (Source: "Domestic Violence Against Women in Turkey" research

Our brief was to draw attention to intimate partner violence. We found out that one of the biggest reasons for it, was the answer no.

We changed the expression "She Said Yes," typically posted by men on social media as an announcement of their engagement, to the phrase "She Said No." We launched the campaign with Turkey’s biggest celebrity couple Afra Saraçoğlu and Mert Yazıcıoğlu.

At the start of the campaign Mert shared a photo of Azra's hand with a post "She said no!" creating a buzz on their potential sepereation. 2 days later he also shared a photo of Azra'a hand, this time making a "stop" gesture with the words "stop the intimate partner violence"

Women fear that saying "NO" will lead to a loss of their worth, rejection, and exclusion. However, the fundamental rule in establishing a relationship based on gender equality is creating an interaction where neither party becomes a victim.

Based on this insight, we asserted that equality begins with saying "NO" and decided to focus the 16-day activism campaign on the power of saying "NO" and its acceptability within relationships. We shifted the communication focus to the moment of engagement, an initial "YES" moment where gender roles seep in unnoticed. Particularly, we decided to transform the ring photos shared by men in recent times with the caption "She said yes" into a celebration of "NO."

We designed a campaign that praised women who set boundaries and rejected the role of accepting, while also challenging men to reconsider their role of control and embrace the role of acceptance.

Mert shared a photo of his girlfriend’s ringless hand with the hashtag "She Said No". Everybody believed that it was a rejection response to a marriage proposal. As of November 25, Mert shared the reverse angle of Afra’s hand photo with the hashtag "She Said No," which raised great awareness against intimate partner violence.

Moreover she said no movement has gone one step further and become we said no as we have changed the marriage pledge in the wedding ceremonies. Couples are to say no before yes from now on.

Couples are now asked to say no to intimate partner violence before they say yes to each other. With 0 budget and 2 posts we reached 278M impressions, increased the followers by 6 times and created 1 conscious nation.

Moreover we implemented the idea of "saying no" in the wedding ceremonies to create awareness for the partner violence against women.