The Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival in Ankara, Turkey will no longer receive funding from the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry. The ministry has been supporting the fest for 20 years, but recently announced that allocating funds to Flying Broom would be “inappropriate,” according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF).

The festival — along with its parent organization, non-profit Flying Broom — works to spread “feminist ideas, actions, and policies towards gender equality and empowerment of women,” per its mission statement.

It’s unclear why or how the ministry concluded that funding the fest would be unsuitable, but the source hints that the government is cracking down on progressivism in the arts. A children’s book about evolution has been censored by Turkey’s largest book store chain, D&R, which is owned by the Demirören Group. Demirören is closely linked to the nation’s ruling Justice and Development Party. “Currently, 90 percent of the Turkish media is under government control,” SCF adds.

Last year Turkey banned all LGBT festivals, screenings, forums, and exhibitions in Ankara to “protect public order and sensitivities.” That vague, subtly condescending reasoning sounds very similar to the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s “inappropriate” rationale.

Thankfully the Flying Broom Festival is not backing down. “Despite all obstacles, all pressure and constraints, we will continue not for 21 years, or 51 years, but for 61 years,” the fest’s organizing committee stated. “We are awaiting the reasoning of the ministry.”

The 21st Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival was held May 10-17. It featured 62 films — Lucreca Martel’s “Zama” and Rojda Sekersöz’s “Dröm vidare” among them — 17 special events, and guests including New Zealand’s first female prime minister, Helen Clark.