A Turkish opposition lawmaker has told parliament that a 16-year-old girl arrested on charges of “disseminating“terrorist propaganda” in a social media video was subjected to a strip-search and alleged mistreatment at a high-security prison, the Bianet news website reported.
Burcugül Çubuk, a member of parliament from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), raised the case on Thursday in the general assembly, citing allegations that the teenager was strip-searched upon arrival at the Şakran High-Security Prison in western Turkey.
Çubuk said she visited the prison earlier this week and later learned from the family that the detainee had been strip-searched. The lawmaker also noted that a court had rejected an appeal of the arrest order, stating that the ruling found “no procedural or legal violation.”
The girl, identified only by the initials A.K, was arrested on February 6 after posting a video of herself braiding her hair and sharing songs on social media, according to her attorney, Edhem Kuruş, who also said his client was physically assaulted during intake procedures.
Prosecutors allege that the post constituted propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), while Kurus said the content was part of a broader online solidarity campaign and argued that the arrest of a minor over social media activity raised concerns about proportionality, children’s rights and freedom of expression.
The arrest came amid a wave of online posts in which women shared videos of themselves braiding their hair, a gesture linked to a campaign that began last month after a video circulated from the Syrian city of Raqqa showing a man holding up a woman’s cut braid and claiming it belonged to a fighter from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The claim could not be independently verified but sparked an online backlash and campaign of solidarity across several countries.
