Neval Paçal, a long-time activist of the Kurdish women's movement TJA (Tevgera Jinên Azad), has died in Adana as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. In her hometown of Batman, female companions accompanied Paçal on her last journey. In addition to her friends and relatives, members of the provincial executive committee of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) also attended the funeral.

Neval Paçal had only been released from prison in March. She spent about two years in pre-trial detention on terror charges. She was one of hundreds of politicians and activists who were arrested in October 2018 in nationwide raids.

Between 2015 and 2016 Neval Paçal worked as a teacher at the "Dibistana Azad" school in the Kurdish metropolis of Van. The metropolis was one of the regions where self-rule was proclaimed in the summer of 2015. The educational model at the "Dibistana Azad" was based on free and democratic thinking - the alternative to the education system of the ruling class, which uses education to stabilize its rule. The school did not stay on its feet for long, as the curfews were imposed on Kurdish towns only a few months after the declaration of self-rule and the institution was finally closed by emergency decree in the summer of 2016.