Turkey: Men protest in 'miniskirts' for women's rights

Istanbul, Feb 26: The streets of Istanbul are now witnessing a huge protest led by men, which is unique in all sense, only to uphold the rights of women. Men in miniskirts rallied in Turkish streets against the alleged murdering of a 20-year-old student, Ozgecan Aslan.

The young female student was killed on Wednesday, Feb 11, 2015 after resisting being raped while on a minibus in Mersin, in southern Turkey.

After the report came on the killing, enormous protests took place both on the streets and in the social media. Men in Turkey and Azerbaijan, wearing miniskirts took out on the streets to mark their dissent.

The hashtag #ozgecanicinminietekgiy, made by a group of men in Azerbaijan, which translates to wear a miniskirt for Ozgecan also become viral on the internet.

A Facebook campaign page for the participants also contains the statement: "If a miniskirt is responsible for everything, if wearing a miniskirt means immorality and unchastity, if a woman who wears a miniskirt is sending an invitation about what will happen to her, then we are also sending an invitation!"

"People are trying to find excuses for rapes and killings," said Turkish lawyer and activist Hulya Gulbahar.

"However, they didn't find any in this case, because Aslan was very innocent, purely innocent. The protest shows that a short skirt is not an excuse for rape," she added.

According to women's rights activists, Aslan's death is a resemblance of Turkey's growing problem of violence against womens and girls.

The official estimates states that there is a marginal increase in murder rate of women and it has also skyrocketed by 1,400 per cent between the year 2002 and 2009. Around 28,000 women were assaulted and more than 214 were murdered in the year 2013 by husbands or lovers.

The social analytics service Topsy also points out that the hashtag, which first appeared last Wednesday, has now been used by more than 11,000 times.

The miniskirt protest has raised awareness and challenged views of the Turkish society.

OneIndia News