The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation on October 26, 2025, against women and LGBT+ individuals protesting the 11th Judicial Package under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The We Won’t Give Up Our Civil Rights Campaign Group unfurled a banner reading “No to the 11th Judicial Package” on a ferry in Beşiktaş after their protest in Kadıköy was blocked at the last minute due to a ban, chanting slogans such as “State, keep your hands off my body” and “Femicides are political.” Lawyer Gülyeter Aktepe said that the prosecutor’s office had classified these slogans under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, that the women had been filmed, that their identities had been determined using turnstile records, and that an investigation had been launched against seven people on charges of “publicly insulting the Turkish nation and the Republic of Turkey.” The December Feminist Collective drew attention to the protests held in nearly 20 provinces on the same day and the detention and strip-searching of two women in Istanbul, asking, “How are these slogans insulting?” The statement emphasized that the judicial mechanism, which should be used to stop femicides, cannot be used to silence those who criticize these murders and hate-filled judicial packages.
November 18, 2025
Bianet