A Turkish woman has been sentenced to five months in prison for allegedly “insulting men” in a tweet that the court was told read “I don’t like men”.
Pinar Yildirim, a 34-year-old book author and influencer campaigning for women’s rights, said it is shocking that she was being jailed for something that she didn’t even write, which can be seen in the tweet, which is still online today.
She had tweeted to her 1.9 million followers, “I still like men” but the court was shown a tweet that reads, “I don’t like men”.
Pinar Yildirim’s tweet after a statement by Turkish media authorities implied watching Netflix encourages homosexuality.
Yildirim said: “RTUK (Radio and Television Supreme Council) made a statement that Netflix content encourages homosexuality. They had a gay character removed from the series named Ask 101 (Love 101).
“I posted this tweet based on that. A sensible person knows that by watching TV, he/she will not be gay.”
She added: “I’ve watched so many gay TV shows, I’ve finished movie after movie, no, no! I still like the vile, characterless sex called men….”
But shockingly when she got to court, her tweet “I still like men” had been changed to “I don’t like men” in the case file.
The 34-year-old is now appealing the conviction which will see her jailed for five months if she loses.
She said jailing a woman for this tweet didn’t make sense in a country where “women are humiliated, insulted and harassed in every field”.
Speaking to Newsflash, she said: “The case is currently on appeal.”
She claimed that her sentence was an “unprecedented case” in Turkey, adding: “Recently, the court decided not to prosecute a male individual who cursed a female journalist and most importantly made a death threat.
“Women are humiliated, insulted and harassed in every field, and our courts prefer to be insensitive to these issues for some reason.”
Yildirim added: “Systematically, my tweets were already being reported to the police by a certain group. I go to the police station almost every week to testify.
“People were looking at it as if nothing would come out of this case, and everyone was shocked, of course.
“Except for a small group of guys, they were rejoicing. Even the prison sentence was not enough for them, there were also those who wanted me dead and wrote in detail about how they would rape me.”