JINHA

WAN – Once again, state forces imposing martial law in Turkey have exposed the body of a woman in Cizre. The family of Ekin Wan, a YJA-Star fighter who was killed and exposed in a similar way in Varto, have described these incidents as the state’s shame, not theirs.

As the Turkish state continues a policy of martial law in Kurdistan, there has been a new development in the policies of intimidation playing out on women’s bodies. A photograph said to be taken in the besieged town of Cizre, showing a woman who has been slain and stripped down in the middle of the street, has spread on social media. The photograph shows signs of torture on the woman’s body. The governor of Cizre’s province of Şırnak recently claimed in a statement that the photograph was not taken in Cizre and is an attempt to “degrade” the reputation of the security forces.

The policy of stripping and displaying women’s naked bodies, used by Turkish state forces widely in Kurdistan during the war of the 1990s, was revived most recently when forces attacked the district of Varto. The state forces stripped and tortured the dead body of YJA-Star guerrilla Ekin Wan (born Kevser Eltürk) and shared the photographs on social media. Although the family filed charges related to the incident, which took place in August, there has still been no development. The family, who continue to protest the state’s attempts to take away women’s dignity, stressed that the naked bodies of these women were not their shame, but their point of pride.

For Ekin Wan’s mother, Delal Eltürk, the photograph of the woman killed and exposed in Cizre renewed her pain. Although Delal initially turned away our microphone, as she slowly began to speak, she began to overflow with curses against those who wage war on women’s bodies.

“What do they want from women? Enough already. When you leave a woman naked and expose her body, what do you get out of it?” said Delal, who proudly said she was not ashamed of her daughter’s naked body. “All I want from God is that those doing this are punished. We have nothing left to say to anymore.

“They did the same thing to my Ekin. They thought that we would be ashamed of her naked body, but we hold our heads high and stand by our daughter,” said Delal. “The degradation, the indigity belongs to them. The dignity of being Ekin’s mother belongs to me.”

Ekin’s sister Gülistan Eltürk condemned the dirty war being waged on women’s bodies. She noted that what was done to her sister last year has now been done to the women of Cizre.

“We’re not ashamed of my sister’s body. They’re trying to push us back by exposing women’s bodies, but they won’t succeed. If one Ekin dies today, a thousand are born,” said Gülistan. “They can’t scare women. When they expose and torture women’s bodies, they just show their own mindsets. Women will rebel against this mindset.”

Gülistan, who called Ekin fearless and valiant, said that every woman should be like her.

(ng-cm/dc/fk)