Police block march of women in Siirt

2015-04-24 10:07:39

SİİRT (DİHA) – Police have set up barricades to stop a group of women protesting the abduction of two teenage girls in Siirt recently.

Two local police officers abducted the two girls and held them in their home for several days in an event that the state has tried to present as involving consenting sexual relations, despite the fact that the girls were minors.

"Legitimate self-defense against police, husbands and the patriarchal mindset," read signs at the protest, which started at the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) building and met with a barricade by police riot control vehicles. HDP parliamentary candidates and local politicians, including the co-mayor, joined the protest.

"We don't want to intervene against women. We won't let you march, but all our officers are young and in their twenties. If you want, they can stay with you here all evening," said the police chief. The sexist remarks triggered the women's decision to start a sit-in at the police barricade, which is ongoing now as women ululate, clap, and chant "woman, life, freedom."

(cm/nt)