Student faces investigation for protesting male violence after Pınar Gültekin’s death

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Having protested male violence after university student Pınar Gültekin was murdered by Cemal Metin A. in Muğla, university student Emine Akbaba now faces an investigation based on a police report.

As reported by the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), Ege University has launched an investigation against Akbaba, who joined the protests in Turkey's Aegean province of İzmir after Gültekin's passing on July 21.

The university administration has summoned Akbaba to depose as part of the investigation. Akbaba has said that these investigations aim to make women's struggle within the campus less effective.

'Questions in the investigation prepared by YÖK'

Emine Akbaba has shared the following details about her meeting with the administration of Ege University:

"The school board told me that the questions they were going to ask me were prepared by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

"But the questions were about how the protest was held. I told the board that these reports were the reports prepared by the police at the scene of the incident, the protest was not held in a university or dormitory within the jurisdiction of the YÖK and, for this reason, I would not make a statement. In response, the board said, 'You will be punished, depose'.

"I cannot even enter the campus due to the suspension orders given against me since 2018. I was admitted to the campus after I was called as part of the Pınar Gültekin investigation." Akbaba has also said that her suspension will expire in the Spring term of 2021, adding that the recent investigation is an attempt to prevent this suspension from expiring.

Reminding that all women protesting on that day were battered and detained by the police, she has said, "Those who have long been trying to stand in the way of women's struggle in universities tried to hinder Pınar Gültekin's smile on that day. Just as we, women, said that we would not lose even a single more woman and laid claim to Pınar's smile then, we are still calling out loud that the İstanbul Convention keeps one alive." (AÖ/SD)