08/06/2018 | Writer: Kaos GL
By not hurting anyone around me, I just want to struggle for my rights with the support of my dear friends and relatives here.
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Refugee trans woman Ayda exposed to a hate crime in Yalova: By not hurting anyone around me, I just want to struggle for my rights with the support of my dear friends and relatives here.
Refugee trans woman Ayda attacked by a group of men in Yalova told what has happened to her. Narrative shared in the webpage “My Name is Ayda” is as follows:
“I was burnt by my family”
“I came to Turkey after terrible experiences that I have been through in the lands where I was born and grown up. I was burnt by my family due to my trans identity. Then I escaped from Iran to Turkey because I had trusted the values and importance Turkey gave to human rights. United Nations opened a file for me after my request. After I started my hormone therapy, finally I was able to make changes on my body in terms of gender identity. I could dress like woman and I did not need to hide myself. However, by the time I started to face with similar problems with my country here.
“I could not find a job and I was exposed to violence. When I could find a job, besides work employers asked me to do sexual things. After all these bad things happened, I requested financial support from UN, and they supported me a little bit.
Seven attacks in a year!
“It has been two years since I came to Turkey, and unfortunately in these years I have been exposed to violence seven times. After many incidents, I have learnt that I have rights to report the incidents to the police.
“Now I will tell you what happened on 30th of May:
“I attended a meeting in Refugee Support Center. Around 18:00, we came out from the meeting place with my friend. On a street on the way to my home where is quite close to the Center, there were 8-10 people standing.
“While we were passing by, they started to shout at me and swore at me. We started to walk faster, but one of them took a knife out of his pocket and started to run though us. At that time, the groups started to attack us with stones. I said “Call the police” to my friend, but due to the brawl my friend couldn’t call but they started to record the attack. When the group saw that my friend was recording, they got crowded more and more, and they were like 70-100 people at the end. I barely saw that some people from the crowd tried to stop the attacks by knife. I am very grateful to these people.
“This was my latest story”
“They were all trying to lynch me and my friend. Then we saw a police officer nearby, and he took us from the crowd. He brought us to a shop for a while to wait for support team. Then the crowd started to attack the shop. Finally, a gendarmerie car came and took us from the shop. When we were in the car, I saw some people from the crowd was trying to provoke the soldiers against us. After they took the first statement, they took us to the hospital and there we took a medical assault report. Accompanied by the soldiers, we went to Yalova police station. Police also took our statements, but they did not give any copy of the documents. This was my latest story.
“By not hurting anyone around me, I just want to struggle for my rights with the support of my dear friends and relatives here.
“I would like to thank everyone who has supported me after this painful experience
“With love…”
Related content:
Refugee trans woman narrowly escaped a lynching attempt
Tags: human rights
