The Fancy Women Bike Ride is an event started in 2013 by history teacher Sema Gür in İzmir.[1] The event draws attention to the themes of freedom and women.[2] The other coordinator of the event is Pınar Pinzuti.[3]
History
Sema Gür, founder of the tour
Sema Gür was born in 1973 in Bandırma 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 Buca Education Faculty in 1991; she graduated from in 1995.[4] Gür started to work as a history teacher at American Collegiate Institute in 1997.[5][6]
Gür learned how to ride a bicycle in 2012 and subsequently founded the Fancy Women Bike Ride as a Facebook event in 2013.[7][8][9] Her intent was to call attention to the World Car-Free Cities Day.[10][11][12]
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.”[13][14][15]
The organization, which became famous over the years, has reached many women. In 2015, tours were organized in Izmir, Istanbul, Adana, Ankara, Eskişehir, Marmaris and Bodrum. The number of cities reached 28 in 2016 and 50 in 2017.[16][17]
In 2018, the event gained an international dimension. The legal existence of the bicycle tour, which is also organized in Italy, Switzerland and Germany, has been accepted by the European Union Transportation Commission.[18][19] In 2019, the event was shown as one of the most successful grassroots movements in the world in Copenhagenize Index 2019.[20] In addition, the number of cities reached 115.[21]
In 2021, tours were organized in 25 countries and 150 cities.[22][23] On November 24, 2021, the Berlin Senatorial for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection selected the tour as "Green Transport Movement of the Year".[24]
