Konca Kuriş (16 October 1961 – 1999) was a Turkish feminist writer who was murdered in

Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, on 20 July 1999 after having disappeared in 1998.

Death

Kuriş was allegedly a former member of the Kurdish Hezbollah but later denounced the organisation and criticised dogmatic interpretations of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

. Kuriş disappeared in July 1998. She was tortured for 38 days and then killed and buried in a shallow grave. Torture sessions were recorded by the killers. Her body was found in January 2000 after the operation in which Hüseyin Velioğlu, the Hizbollah leader was killed. She was 38.

Perpetrators

Kurdish Hezbollah claimed responsibility for her abduction, torture, and death with a statement "An enemy of Islam and a secular-feminist Konca Kuriş due to her actions and statements against Allah and Quran Al Karim, has been kidnapped by Hizbullah warriors and questioned in our bases. Konca Kuriş, who has been acting in parallel with the official religion statements and under the directives of the irreligious-secular Turkish Republic and also who has been used by the Zionists as well, has been punished according to the requirements of the sheria law for initiating activities that would put Muslims into doubt." It was found that Hezbollah killed many people. The only woman victim of Hezbollah is Kuriş.

Personal life

She was married to Orhan Kuriş and had five children. She was a devout Muslim.

Legacy

A plaque with the text, Konca Kuris 1960-1998 Tortured and murdered for advocating women's rights in Islam, had been placed at the "Canberra Nara Peace Park", part of the Lennox Gardens in Canberra, Australia.Canberra Nara Peace Park - Konca Kuris
Flickr

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuris, Konca 20th-century Turkish women writers 1960 births 1998 deaths Burials at Mersin Cemetery People killed by Islamic terrorism People persecuted by Muslims Proponents of Islamic feminism Turkish feminist writers Turkish torture victims Turkish women writers