JINHA

ISTANBUL - Five trans women from Azerbaijan and Brazil have gone on hunger strike against their imprisonment in isolation from other women and LGBTI prisoners.

Five trans women from Azerbaijan and Brazil have started a hunger strike in the Maltepe Prison in Istanbul. They are denouncing the isolated confinement of trans women prisoners in Turkey, who are isolated from the general women's prisoner population.

In June, 21 LGBTI prisoners were transferred from one prison unit in the Maltepe prison. In the process, trans women prisoners who were not citizens of Turkey were separated out and isolated from the other prisoners. In a letter from the Maltepe prison, the five trans women wrote, "We do not discriminate amongst ourselves. We meet each other's needs in the name of solidarity. But separating us out stops this."

The four trans women--one from Azerbaijan, four from Brazil--wrote that their basic needs have not been met and that they will be on hunger strike until they are returned to the women prison population. They have spent the last four years imprisoned with the other LGBTI prisoners, who helped support them in the prison.

"We are really victimized here. Turkish gay people were giving us material and moral support," wrote the women. The women reported that the consulate has not aided them. They have called on the courts to include NGOs working on these issues, rather than making unilateral decisions on behalf of prisoners.

One of the hunger-striking women, Rafael Q. Alves De Souza, is reported to be in poor condition.

(ödk/dc/gc/cm)