Killers of Özgecan damned
MERSİN / ANKARA (DİHA) - Thousands of women in Turkey have protested at the murder of a young woman who burnt to death.
Police discovered the burnt body of Ozgecan Aslan, 20, in a riverbed in the city of Mersin, on Friday. Ms Aslan, a psychology student, was kidnapped on Wednesday on her way home. The driver tried to rape her. She reportedly fought him off with pepper spray, but was then stabbed to death. She was also hit on the head with an iron pipe. The brutality of the murder caused an outcry across Turkey.
Thousands of women staged protests in several cities on Saturday, including Ankara, Istanbul, and Mersin - Ms Aslan's hometown in southern Turkey. In Istanbul, women activists held two separate protests to show their anger at the murder. During the day, hundreds gathered behind a banner that read "Enough, we will stop the murder of women!" In the evening, the crowd got bigger. Thousands of women of all ages and walks of life poured out to the streets.
A young woman, Bulay Dogan, said Ms Aslan's murder scared her. "I'm afraid, because the same thing could happen to me or my friends. But on the other hand, I'm furious too. How can they [the murder suspects] be so reckless to do something like this?" she asked. Also on the protests was a gender studies academic who would only give her first name, Zeynep. She thought Ms Aslan's murder was of a political nature too.
"It is the result of the radical Islamic atmosphere created by the government. The men say that women should be conservative. They think if they are not conservative, they deserve this kind of violence," she said.
(nt)
