‘Parliamentary subcommittee must convene for the Iranian anti-hijab activist’

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Muş MP Gülistan Kılıç-Koçyiğit has called on the Committee on Migration and Integration, a subcommittee of the Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission, to convene to discuss the situation of Iranian activist Nasibe Shemsai.

Kılıç-Koçyiğit has noted that Shemsai is one of the women who participated in the anti-hijab protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Journalist Peyman Aref, on November 15, announced on social media that Nasibe Shemsai was being held in an immigration removal center in the northwestern Edirne province and not allowed to meet her attorneys. Her family also said on social media that she would be arrested if she returned to Iran. Shemsai was reportedly in Turkey to go to Europe.

Against this backdrop, HDP MP Kılıç-Koçyiğit has shared the following information about the situation of the activist:

'Iran threatens women's rights to life'

"Since 2017, several Iranian women have been taken into custody and arrested on the grounds that they joined the anti-hijab protests. Some Iranian women had to leave Iran and sought refuge from other countries. One of these women is Nasibe Shemsai.

"The deportation of the fled women to the state of Iran seriously threatens their right to life. With a 12-year final prison sentence handed down against her in Iran, Nasibe Shemsai had come to Turkey to cross into Europe and she was caught in İstanbul.

"While the Governor's Office of İstanbul decided that Shemsai be deported to Iran, she is currently held in Edirne removal center. In the justification of the Governor's Office decision, it is written that she entered Turkey illegally and was caught while she was about to flee with a fake passport.

'The necessary must be done'

"The right to life of the migrant women who have taken refuge in Turkey must be guaranteed, their problems must be identified in all aspects, their grievances must be remedied and significant steps must be taken to ensure that the protective and preventive measures foreseen in the Law no. 6284 [on the Protection of Family and Prevention of Violence Against Women] apply to migrant women as well.

"Affiliated with the Human Rights Investigation Commission, the Subcommittee on Migration and Integration must urgently convene with the specific agenda of refugee women." (EMK/SD)