The honor code of Turkey's rural Yalvac district, normally dictated by men, was turned upside down by a woman who decapitated her alleged rapist and tossed his head into the square of the district's main village.
"That is the head of the one who toyed with my honor," Nevin Y. yelled as police arrested her.
The 26-year-old mother of two, whose full name has not been made public, claims she was blackmailed and raped for months by a man who made her pregnant, before she decided to seek revenge. She feared that if her rapist spread details of the attacks, her honor and the honor of her children would be compromised. Every day in Turkey women are killed or tortured for defying these codes.
For Nevin, the burden of honor hasn't ended. As she enters the fifth month of her pregnancy, she falls under the legal restriction that prohibits abortions after 10 weeks. Turkey's abortion debate has been re-sparked as Nevin pleas with authorities, saying she would rather die than give birth to the child of her attacker.
"The extremity of Nevin's actions show the extent of the trauma the rape has caused," says Dr. Gürsel Öztunalı Kayır of the Foundation for Women's Solidarity. " We shouldn't be distracted by the murder; if she wants to have an abortion following months of abuse, she should have the right."
If she's pregnant, it must not have been a legitimate rape.
The honor code of Turkey's rural Yalvac district, normally dictated by men, was turned upside down by a woman who decapitated her alleged rapist and tossed his head into the square of the district's main village.
"That is the head of the one who toyed with my honor," Nevin Y. yelled as police arrested her.
The 26-year-old mother of two, whose full name has not been made public, claims she was blackmailed and raped for months by a man who made her pregnant, before she decided to seek revenge. She feared that if her rapist spread details of the attacks, her honor and the honor of her children would be compromised. Every day in Turkey women are killed or tortured for defying these codes.
For Nevin, the burden of honor hasn't ended. As she enters the fifth month of her pregnancy, she falls under the legal restriction that prohibits abortions after 10 weeks. Turkey's abortion debate has been re-sparked as Nevin pleas with authorities, saying she would rather die than give birth to the child of her attacker.
"The extremity of Nevin's actions show the extent of the trauma the rape has caused," says Dr. Gürsel Öztunalı Kayır of the Foundation for Women's Solidarity. " We shouldn't be distracted by the murder; if she wants to have an abortion following months of abuse, she should have the right."
My friend is going to school for photography and her class got some press passes to go to the RNC yesterday. She snapped this one with her phone. WTF? I guess they don't care about the traumatic effect this could have on a small child who might see this driving down the street.
Click on the image if you really want to see it larger to get the full effect.
Hey, they are there to protect the unborn, after they are born?.........meh they have churches and charities for the riff raff harumph, yes, indeed, quite.
My friend is going to school for photography and her class got some press passes to go to the RNC yesterday. She snapped this one with her phone. WTF? I guess they don't care about the traumatic effect this could have on a small child who might see this driving down the street.
Click on the image if you really want to see it larger to get the full effect.
"The Minority Report" and thoughtcrime is fiction; let's keep it that way. If you're a Catholic, don't force me to live as a Catholic.
Respect the Constitution. If you can muster enough votes to make an amendment, then give it a try. But until and unless there is a "no choice" amendment and/or separation of church and state is amended away, the Constitution as-is is still the highest law—obey it.
Who would have thought that two brilliant Al Jazeera women journalists would make the best new TV program on the politics of abortion out there. And who would guess that they pulled this off on the cusp of our presidential political conventions when the "issue" is at a boiling point. They have, they did. (...)
You are right, I was overstating. But if all women had access to birth control, if Plan B was readily available, if Planned Parenthood is supported, if children receive appropriate sex ed, etc.
"The Minority Report" and thoughtcrime is fiction; let's keep it that way. If you're a Catholic, don't force me to live as a Catholic.
