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Outrage persists in Turkey over girl raped and burned in southern city

Xinhua, February 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkish women across the country dressed in black on Monday to protest the brutal murder of a 20-year-old university student who was allegedly raped and burned in the southern city of Mersin last week.

The outrage among the public continues over the death of Ozgecan Aslan, whose body found burnt last week alongside a river near her hometown Mersin. Since then the reactions haven't been ceased.

Turkish women including high school students took to the streets to protest the violence against women upon the call of NGOs and women platforms.

Women posted their photos in black clothes in the social media like twitter, instagram and facebook. Many also shared their own harassment and abuse stories in the social media.

"Do you oppose violence against women? Wear black today in honour of OzgecanAslan brutally murdered, then burnt in Turkey," wrote the twitter campaign.

The young woman Aslan went missing last week. During search and rescue operation the police found her body stabbed and burnt.

According to the testimonies of the suspects, the 26-year-old minibus driver allegedly tried to rape Aslan. When she resisted the rapist, he stabbed her to death and later burned her.

Although Turkey's president, prime minister declared that they will do their best to stop the violence against women, the mistrust among the public and experts are high.

Women associations have blamed the ruling Justice and Development Party AKP over their inaction over violence against women.

During the mass rally on Sunday the crowd asked Family and Social Policies Minister Aysenur Islam to resign.

"We do not want them to speak any more saying the same things over and over again. We want them to take our solution proposals into consideration," said Isin Kurt, the media representative of the platform "Stop women homicide."

The women platforms also asked a new constitution to be set up that will declare the equality of women and men.

In Turkey, 189 women were murdered in 2013, and 207 were killed in the first nine months of 2014. Endit