Posted on 02/27/2019 11:38:13 AM PST by Texas Fossil
Kurdish artist/journalist Zehra Dogan went to prison for portraying life in southeastern Turkey during the country's state of emergency. Now she is free, and has no plans to give up her fight against injustice.
Why did you paint a picture of destroyed houses with a Turkish flag? That is the question authorities asked Kurdish artist and journalist Zehra Dogan when she learned she was going to jail for her paintings, articles and social media posts. "Then they threw me in prison," she said. "But they are the ones who created this picture- I only illustrated it."
Imprisoned twice for alleged terrorist ties, Dogan was recently released on February 24. It's a time of emotional turmoil, she told DW, adding that she feels terrible because she had to leave behind the other women in her prison.
"I woke up in the middle of the night and had to remind myself that I was no longer in prison," she said about her first night of freedom.
Read more: A return to dark days for journalists in Turkey
"In prison, I told the children fairy tales, I sketched my friends who were on hunger strike and I was glad to have something to keep me busy," she said. "Once you get used to something, you think: 'This is my life from now on' — I had gotten used to prison and now I'm thinking about what I can do in the future."
Life-changing journalism
Born in 1989 in Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey, Dogan studied art at Dicle University and planned to be a teacher. At the time, she had no idea that she was about to find another passion.
Dogan never stopped painting, but she was also keen to report on the everyday lives of Kurds in southeastern Turkey. In 2012 she co-founded JINHA, Turkey's first women-only news agency..
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
Dogan said that during her time behind bars, she couldn't imagine being free again. Now that she is finally out, she is ready to get back to work. "You know, journalism is addictive," Dogan said. "Fortunately, journalism exists."
Now, what relevance does this have to the US? Consider what the News Media machine in the US and globally do to conservatives in the US. Is this possible here? Well, if the ComDems have their way, I'd say it is possible. But if they try, there will be a terrible price they pay.
I’d like to have somma that.
I’m sorry, but this young woman isn’t just a journalist or an artist. The PKK and Kurdish freedom movement are political separatist factions.
I’m not fan of Erdogan, but it’s simplistic to ascribe good intentions to the separatists. Turkey is housing most of the Syrian refugees at the moment, and while Erdogan is way more conservative and facing eastward instead of westward... like Assad in Syria, he’s having to placate lots of factions of whack jobs. Just because we’ve used Kurds to fight battles for us in Syria and Iraq does not make them the good guys.
You think the whole the prison wouldn’t give me paint and as an artist I would rather die, so I used my menstrual blood and taught the other women to also use their menstrual blood to paint with is an artistic expression of art? -_-
Well, you are simply wrong.
You said: “Turkey is housing most of the Syrian refugees”
It is simply untrue, in fact less than a year ago they evicted 350-400,000 civilians from Efrin on the pretense of fighting terrorists. There was never a single attack on Turkey. Erdogan lies every time he opens his mouth and he used 3,000 ISIS plus some al Qaeda (Nusra) to displace these peaceful Syrian civilians. (Massacred many of them)
She did not expect Turkey to furnish her paint. She was not allowed to have it in the prison.
I don’t know where you are coming from but I know these people. Turkey is the harbor for ISIS, Nusra, Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and Erdogan is not simply right wing, he is a Dictator in every sense of the word.
Turkey if not checked will again commit Genocide. Oh, yes they did after WWI and to this day have never admitted it. And they will not becase they intend to do it again when given the chance.
I’ve followed this conflict for way over 4 year and know a number of people there very well.
I don’t know her personally, but I do respect them for being very tough people. They put up with a lot of abuse but are still defiant.
Where they live is a tough place.
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