Handan Tufan/JINHA

IZMIR – The Turkish state has opened a case against five women activists who shut down traffic in Izmir in a demonstration in the wake of the brutal killing of Özgecan Aslan, which became a flashpoint for demonstrations against femicide in Turkey.

Women around Turkey took to the streets the weekend of Valentine's Day in Turkey to protest the killing of Özgecan Aslan, a university student in Mersin province raped and burned to death by the three men on the bus she took home late one night. The five women in Izmir held an action where they opened purple umbrellas in the middle of a street in the Basmane neighborhood, closing traffic. The women are being tried for unlawful assembly for the February 14 demonstration.

So far, the women are being fined 391 lira ($150). Three of them are from the People's Houses organization and two from the University Women's Collective. They will go before a judge on July 9.

"We see this as intimidation tactics," said the woman. "But this won't intimidate us. Whatever the price, we will be out in the streets against femicide."

(fk/cm)