NGOs and language organisations in Amed, in a joint press conference, announced their decision to publish the stories written by female prisoners in Turkey and North Kurdistan.

The stories to be collected from Kurdish female prisoners will be published in a book to be titled ‘Stories of Women Resisting in Prisons’, said Şilan Elmaskan, co-chair of the Mesopotamia Association for Linguistic and Cultural Studies (MED-DER), and called for all female prisoners to send their stories written in free style.

Indicating thousands of women held under isolation and torture conditions in prisons, Elmaskan said, “Female prisoners demanding freedom continue to resist in prisons as they struggled outside.”

Condemning the ban on Kurdish books in prisons, Elmaskan pointed to the struggle of prisoners for the sake of Kurdish language, citing obstacles for the books written by female prisoners being taken out and access to institutions and publication houses.

Elmaskan called on all female prisoners to send their stories to the MED TUHAD-FED, the Federation of Legal and Solidarity Associations for Families of Prisoners and Convicts, until March 8.

The signatories of the statement are as follows:

The Mesopotamia Association for Linguistic and Cultural Studies (MED-DER), PENa Kurd, Association of Kurdish Writers, the Federation of Legal and Solidarity Associations for Families of Prisoners and Convicts (MED TUHAD-FED), Rosa Women’s Association, Lawyers’ Association for Freedom (ÖHD), Association for Kurdish Researches, and Amed Bar Association Women’s Rights Center.