Murder of Young Woman Sparks #sendeanlat Twitter Campaign in Turkey
The murder of twenty year old student Ozecan Aslan has sparked mass protests in Turkey and has begun a Twitter campaign where Turkish women share their stories of sexual harassment and fear.
The young student was travelling on a minibus back home to the seaside province of Mersin, on Wednesday. The male driver of the minibus tried to rape her according to local sources.
Twenty-year-old student Ozgecan Aslan was travelling on a minibus in the south-east seaside province of Mersin on Wednesday when a man tried to rape her, according to local media.
Reports say Aslan pepper-sprayed the man before he stabbed her and brutally beat her to death with an iron bar. His father and a friend helped him dispose of her body in a river in Tarsus, where it was found on Friday with her hands cut off and evidence of burns.
A 26-year-old man, Ahmet Suphi Altındöke, was arrested on Monday and confessed to the crime, the Hurriyet Daily News reported. Altındöke’s 50-year-old father and 20-year-old friend were also arrested.
The murder has caused outrage in Turkey and Turkish women have taken to social media using the hashtag #sendeanlat (tell your story),where women detail experiences of violence, intimidation and harassment, as well as their fears that haunt their everyday such as wearing a wedding ring or getting off a bus early to avoid being the last passenger.
There are wide gender issues in Turkey. The World Economic Forum's 2014 Gender Gap Report ranks Turkey 125th out of 142 countries in terms of gender inequality.
Image Source: BBC
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