Turkish woman sentenced to five months in prison for tweeting ‘I don’t like men’

A Turkish woman has been sentenced to five months in prison for allegedly “insulting men” in a tweet that stated she does not “like men”.

Pinar Yildirim | Sentenced to five months in prison

According to various reports, Pinar Yildirim, a 34-year-old book author and influencer campaigning for women’s rights, said jailing a woman for writing “I don’t like men” is bizarre in a country where “women are humiliated, insulted and harassed in every field”.

Yildrim later said that the tweet was not even the original one she tweeted. According to Yildirim, her original post read “I still like men” and not the one she is being accused of. Hence, she is puzzled why she is being jailed for something she did not even do, or post in this case.

According to various reports, it remains a mystery why her original tweet did not read as she typed it, something seen by her 1.9 million followers.

The tweet is being associated with a statement made by Turkish media authorities that implied watching Netflix encourages homosexuality.

“I posted this tweet based on that. A sensible person knows that by watching TV, he/she will not be gay,” she said. “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….”

Yildirim is now appealing the decision by the court. If she loses the appeal, she will be jailed for five months.

According to News24, the case is currently on appeal.

She said that her conviction was an “unprecedented case” in the country and added: “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,” she says.

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.”