The Fancy Women Bike Ride was an annual event started in 2013 by history teacher Sema Gür in

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

, Turkey. The event drew attention to the themes of freedom and women. The other coordinator of the event was Pınar Pinzuti. The events ran for 11 years and finished in 2023.

History

Sema Gür was born in 1973 in

Bandırma Bandırma ()Greek: Panormos(Πανορμος)is a municipality and district of Balıkesir Province, northwestern Turkey. Its area is 755 km2, and its population is 167,363 (2024). Bandırma is located in the south of the Marmara Sea, in the ...

where she lived until she began attending university. She has been involved in various social responsibility projects and won the Department of History Teaching at

Dokuz Eylül University Dokuz Eylül University () (DEÜ) is a Public university, public research university in İzmir, Turkey. Founded in 1982, it is organized into 18 faculties. It holds the distinction of being the first university in Turkey to implement the probl ...

Buca Education Faculty in 1991; she graduated from in 1995. Gür started to work as a history teacher at

American Collegiate Institute Founded in 1878, the American Collegiate Institute (), referred to by the acronym ACI, is a Private school, private Mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary school, high school in Goztepe, İzmir, Turkey. ACI was founded, and is now run, by t ...

in 1997. Gür learned how to ride a bicycle in 2012 and subsequently founded the Fancy Women Bike Ride as a Facebook event in 2013. Her intent was to call attention to the World Car-Free Cities Day. In 2013, 300 women supported the first round. The women toured the center of the city dressed in elegant and fancy clothes and adorning their bicycles with flowers. At the end of the tour, they announced the press release, “Let the cities smell of perfume instead of the smell of exhaust.” The organization, which became famous over the years, has reached many women. In 2015, tours were organized in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630. The city is l ...

Marmaris Marmaris () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Muğla Province, Turkey. Its area is 906 km2, and its population is 97,818 (2022). It is a port city and tourist resort on the Aegean Sea, Mediterranean coast, along the shorel ...

and

Bodrum Bodrum () is a town and district of Muğla Province, Turkey. About 200 thousand people live in the district, which covers 650 km2 and includes the town. It is a port town at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Known in ancient times as Hal ...

. The number of cities reached 28 in 2016 and 50 in 2017. In 2018, the event gained an international dimension. The legal existence of the bicycle tour, which is also organized in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, has been accepted by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Transportation Commission. In 2019, the event was shown as one of the most successful grassroots movements in the world in Copenhagenize Index 2019. In addition, the number of cities reached 115. In 2021, tours were organized in 25 countries and 150 cities. On November 24, 2021, the Berlin Senatorial for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection selected the tour as "Green Transport Movement of the Year". In 2022, Sema Gür and Pınar Pinzuti were awarded with UN World Bicycle Day Award by Leszek Sibilski. 2023 saw the 11th and last event; there have been no events since September 2023.

Gallery

Süslü Kadınlar Bisiklet Turu-Urla.png, Tour organized in Urla

References

{{Reflist Bicycle tours