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

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

. The event draws attention to the themes of freedom and women. The other coordinator of the event is Pınar Pinzuti. And the coordinator in Bergama is Emine Pür Aktürk.

History

Sema Gür was born in 1973 in

Bandırma Bandırma () is a city in northwestern Turkey with 161,894 inhabitants as of 2021 on the Sea of Marmara. Bandırma is a district of Balıkesir Province. Bandırma is located in the south of the Marmara Sea, in the bay with the same name, and is a ...

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 ( tr, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) (DEÜ) is a university in İzmir, Turkey. It was founded in 1982 and is organized in 15 faculties. DEU is the first university which applied the problem-based learning method in Turkey, ...

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 ( tr, Özel İzmir Amerikan Koleji), referred to by the acronym ACI, is a private co-educational high school in Goztepe, İzmir, Turkey. ACI was founded, and is now run, by the charity foundation ...

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 Izmir,

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana Province, Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

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 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...

Marmaris Marmaris () is a port city and tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in Muğla Province, southwest Turkey, along the shoreline of the Turkish Riviera. Although Marmaris is known for its honey, its main source of income is internationa ...

and

Bodrum Bodrum () is a port city in Muğla Province, southwestern Turkey, at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Its population was 35,795 at the 2012 census, with a total of 136,317 inhabitants residing within the district's borders. Known in ancient t ...

. 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 ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, has been accepted by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

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 Leszek Jan Sibilski (born April 1, 1958) is a Polish-American sociologist, track cyclist, and originator of the World Bicycle Day. Education and professional career Leszek Sibilski graduated from Education and Sport Science at the Academy of ...

Gallery

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

References

{{Reflist, 30em Bicycle tours