JINHA

AMED - 19-year-old singer Mutlu Kaya is out of a coma and communicating after she was shot in the head in an attempted femicide.

Mutlu Kaya was shot while she was at home in the main Kurdish province of Diyarbakır in May. The attack on Kaya came at a time of intensifying anger in Turkey over the extent of violence against women. There have been 144 femicides reported in Turkey just this year.

Mutlu Kaya had been in intensive care in a Diyarbakır hospital until now.

"She has been moved out of intensive care and into a private room. Her overall health is good. She has regained consciousness and is able to communicate with us," her doctor Ulaş Aktaş said. "At first she was answering with one-word answers, but now she can say eight to ten words. She is totally aware of what's going on around her," the doctor said.

He added that the young woman was on a liquid diet and was being allowed to go out in a wheelchair once a day. She will, however, require months of physical therapy.

(nt/cm)