A group of Turkish lawyers in the western province of İzmir started a brawl during the general meeting of the İzmir Bar, when one of their colleagues chanted “Jin, Jiyan Azadi” to show support for the protests in Iran, Artı Gerçek reported.
The Kurdish slogan, which means “Woman, Life, Freedom”, has become a symbol of the protests that have swept Iran since the death of a 22-year old Jina (Mahsa) Amini following her arrest by the Islamist regime’s morality police for disobeying hijab codes.
Many lawyers in Turkey showed their support for Iran’s women’s protesters on Saturday during provincial bar association general meetings held across Turkey.
Aryen Turan, a lawyer in İzmir, spoke of sick prisoners being denied release despite severe medical conditions. The lawyer also mentioned the case of Deniz Poyraz, a female employee of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) who was killed in an attack against the HDP’s İzmir branch headquarters in 2021.
“We pledge that we will hold onto their struggle for equality and freedom. We say ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ aloud against the male dominant system that represses women,” said Turan, a member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD).
The bar association’s Republican Lawyers Group, reacting against the Kurdish slogan, started a brawl, and things only calmed down after some of the lawyers left the meeting venue, Artı Gerçek said.
A lawyer cut her hair on the podium at the general meeting of the Istanbul Bar to show support for her sisters in Iran. Then a lawyer from Iran stepped up, saying “I am the voice of Iranian women”. However, her speech was cut short by protests from the Nationalists Lawyers Group and she was forced to leave the podium.
