Dilan Karamanoğlu /JINHA

BURSA – Two women in the Turkish city of Bursa will be jailed, along with their nursing infants, on the grounds that they danced on World Peace Day.

In September 2013, hundreds of people gathered in a public square in the city of Bursa for a celebration of World Peace Day, which is celebrated on September 1 in Turkey. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) had called the gathering, which passed uneventfully, with no police intervention.

A month later, police called in 16 people to the police station, saying they had taken part in an "ideological halay" (referring to a traditional Kurdish line dance) and played Kurdish music at the celebration. A judge ultimately gave the 16 Peace Day celebrants prison sentences of minimum 10 months for dancing that day.

Sevgi Polat and Semra Getiren, among the 16, each have nursing infants who were born during the course of their trial. They will be taking their nursing infants to jail with them. The women say they are being charged because they were active in the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Semra Getiren, whose infant is two months old, says that among their charges is playing the music of Kurdish singer Şivan Perwer. The ruling AKP had invited Şivan Perwer, long in exile, back to the country recently to give an official concert. Semra said she didn't understand why dancing to a song by a singer who had been an official guest of the ruling government was a crime.

Semra's husband, also charged in the case, will be going to jail at the same time as her. Because the baby has not been weaned, the couple cannot ask a friend or relative to care for the baby.

"Prisons are not an appropriate environment for babies," said Semra. "If there's a problem with the baby's health, how will the state account for what it's done?"

Sevgi Polat, who will be going to jail with her 11-month-old baby, recalls that the day passed of the dancing passed peacefully and the police present made no effort to intervene in the celebrations.

When Sevgi was first called before a judge, in May 2014, she was pregnant. She could not attend her second hearing because she had just given birth. She told the judge that dancing halay was a traditional practice at weddings.

The state has now opened charges against Semra and her husband Sinan for dancing halay at their wedding, saying the Kurdish music played was "PKK propaganda."

(fk/cm)