Forced to sex work, Sibel Y. demands justice: ‘Police raided my house’

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Subjected to sexual assault and male violence in Bodrum district in Turkey's southern Aegean province of Muğla, Sibel Y. has announced that the police raided her house and seized her digital materials.

Speaking to bianet, Sibel Y. previously expressed her demand for justice, explaining in detail how a man named Mutlu E., with whom she had met for a job interview, sexually assaulted her and subjected her to systematic violence, adding that they were also trying to sell her to a criminal organization forcing women to do sex work.

While Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MPs Serpil Kemalbay and Gülistan Kılıç-Koçyiğit have also brought the issue into the Parliamentary agenda, officials from the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services also called Sibel Y. and said that they would "address" the issue.

'They held me in my arm and dragged me'

Sibel Y. has shared the following details about the police raid to her house:

"The other evening, police officers came to our house, said that there was a tip-off due to my Facebook posts and seized by phone and computer.

"I think they did it to take away some evidence that I have from me. They also took me to the police station and several male police officers dragged me on the floor there. A medical intervention was made on my arm on that day. 'Don't, it hurts so much,' I told them, but they still pulled me from my arm and dragged me on the floor.

"I am really concerned. They called me from the Ministry of Family and Labor, they told me that they would deal with it. The police who did this to me have still not taken a single action against assaulter Mutlu. Those inflicted violence on me can go around freely while I am dragged on the floor.

"They pushed my arm so much that I had my wound dressed again. I want everyone to hear me, to hear my voice. I am all alone here. Do I have to die so that you hear my voice? My voice would be heard if I had died. I don't want to die. I want the ones who tortured me like that to be arrested."

What happened?

Living in Milas, Bodrum in Muğla province, Sibel Y. has announced that she is struggling against a criminal organization who forces women to do sex work. She has said that Mutlu E., whom she met for a job interview on March 3, subjected her to systematic sexual assault and violence and they now want to sell her to a criminal organization for sex work.

While Sibel Y. submitted the related information, documents and reports to the Milas Prosecutor's Office, Mutlu E. was detained, but he was released shortly afterwards. Sibel Y. is still seeking justice. (EMK/SD)