JINHA

ADANA - "Is it always women who will die? Let men die some too. I killed him for my honor," said Çilem Doğan, arrested yesterday in Adana, Turkey for killing the husband who tried to force her into sex work.

Çilem Doğan, 28, had tried to separate from her husband because of his violence against her. Yesterday, after her husband Hasan Karabulut tried to force her into sex work, she shot him with six bullets. After killing Hasan, Çilem notified the police of what had happened and headed for her family's house. There, she was arrested.

As Çilem gave a thumbs-up with her handcuffed hands as women police officers took her away, it looked like the sign of victory over years of torture. Hasan had abused Çilem since the first days of her marriage. Whether it was intentional or not, her t-shirt bore the message: "Dear past, thanks for all the lessons. Dear future, I am ready."

"He was always hitting and abusing me," said Çilem, who noted that her previous complaints and testimony on the abuse could be found at the local police station. Courts had ordered Hasan to leave the family home on six separate occasions and issued him a 9-month prison sentence, but the abuse continued. When Çilem hired a lawyer to get a divorce, the families told her to stay with him for their daughter. When Hasan called her and said that he would kill her mother, father and brothers if she tried to get a divorce, Çilem gave up on the idea.

Çilem explained what happened yesterday in her testimony: "The day of the event, he came home towards morning. After sleeping a little, he got up and told me to get my suitcase ready. I asked him what we were doing. He said, 'We're going to Antalya, you're going to do some prostitution and earn some money.'" Çilem said that Hasan had forced her to do sex work in the past.

"When I objected, he started to hit me. He pushed me over the bed and started beating me. The pistol under the pillow popped into my head. I reached out and grabbed Hasan's gun and shot one bullet after another. Then I took my daughter, locked the door and left the house," said Çilem. Çilem walked calmly to the forensic hospital for a medical examination and was then taken into custody.

A social media campaign for Çilem's freedom has started with the hashtags #ÖzSavunmaHaktır (self-defense is a right) and #ÇilemDoğanaÖzgürlük (freedom for Çilem Doğan).

(gc/fk/cm)