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Kurdish deputy took oath wearing a symbol of peace

This article originally appeared in Ahval.

The mainly Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) newly elected deputy Remziye Tosun took her oath on Saturday in the Parliament by wearing a traditional headscarf that symbolises peace in southeast Turkey.

The white tülbent, a headdress made of muslin, is generally worn in the region by married women. However, they also symbolise peace, as women take off their headscarves and throw them on the floor, when they want to end a blood feud between men.

Tosun is a heroic figure for the Kurdish movement as in 2015 she resisted for 96 days during the operations of the Turkish security forces in Sur, the ancient district of Diyarbakır province in southeast Turkey. Tosun refused to leave her house despite a curfew was imposed on Sur and was immediately detained with her 2-year-old daughter after she got out. She was charged with aiding a terrorist organisation and stayed 15 months in prison till December 2017, while her other 3 children were seized by the state.

“I will first of all work for women. I will fight for the freedom of women who are prisoners in their houses,” Remziye Tosun told Artı Gerçek in May before the elections.


This article was originally published in Ahval.

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