In September 2012 Nevin Yildirim, a 26-year-old Turkish mother of two was blackmailed, threatened and raped repeatedly by Nurettin Gider.

Gider started the attacks shortly after Yildirim’s husband left town for a seasonal job in January of 2012.

Yildirim says that Gider raped her, impregnated her and then, snuck into her home while she was sleeping and photographed her. The pictures revealed a pregnant body and Gider threatened to publish the pictures if she didn’t obey him.

“I chased him,” she said. “He fell on the ground. He started cussing. I shot his sexual organ this time. He became quiet. I knew he was dead. I then cut his head off.”

She brought the head to the town square and in front of men sitting at a coffee House, she said, “Don’t talk behind my back, don’t play with my honor. Here is the head of the man who played with my honor.”

Al-Monitor elaborated on the story earlier this year, reporting:

Yildirim was arrested and requested an abortion from the prison authorities, but the hospital would not perform one since it was beyond the 10-week period allowed by Turkish law. Yildirim had no other option but to give birth, and on Nov. 17, 2012, she did.

She was arrested and received a life sentence March 27th of this year. According to Al-Monitor, “The 125-page verdict, made public recently, stated that Yildirim and Gider had a ‘romantic affair.’ It made no mention of rumors, social environment or the psychology of a woman denied an abortion. The court decided after the lengthy trial that the relationship had been consensual, ignoring Yildirim’s rape argument.”

She was denied the usual sentence reduction given to men for similar crimes by Turkish courts and she is currently imprisoned pending the outcome of her appeal.

This is a tragic example of what happens when women are not protected under the law. America is light years ahead of Turkey but we are witnessing an unprecedented attack on women’s rights in the U.S., from the thousands of bills looking to restrict or ban abortions to the attempt to make contraception unavailable. When you attack women, they fight back and women don’t mess around.

This CNN video was broadcast before Yildirim’s trial and subsequent imprisonment:

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