Melis Alphan (Melis Çelebi; born 1978), is a Turkish journalist and author. She is known for her

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

activism and her fashion journalism.

Education

Following her graduation from the

American Collegiate Institute Founded in 1878, the American Collegiate Institute (), referred to by the acronym ACI, is a Private school, private Mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary school, high school in Goztepe, İzmir, Turkey. ACI was founded, and is now run, by t ...

in İzmir, she studied Fashion at the

London College of Fashion The London College of Fashion is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers undergraduate and postgraduate study, short courses, study-abroad courses and business t ...

from where she earned a BSc. Following she studied for a while at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. In 2001 she returned to Turkey and initiated her journalistic career at the ''Vizyon'' magazine. The same year she began working at the newspaper

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally consider ...

and by 2003 she received a job at the

Milliyet ''Milliyet'' ( Turkish for "''nationality''") is a daily newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. History and profile ''Milliyet'' came to publishing life at the Nuri Akça press in Babıali, Istanbul as a daily private newspaper on 3 May 1950 ...

newspaper. In 2009 she started to work at the Hürriyet newspaper, for which she reported for 9 years. She wrote articles on women rights, fashion amongst other issues and with time she became one of the few female journalists to write an own column in a Turkish newspaper. In 2018 she was a member of the jury for the Metin Göktepe journalism award. In 2019 she published the book ''I Will – Inspiring Life Stories''.

Legal prosecution

In November 2020 an investigation into an

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

post of her about the Kurdish new year celebrations in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is ...

in 2015 was initiated. In the photograph in question, a flag of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

, with which the Turkish Government at the time was holding peace negotiations was also to be seen. The prosecution demanded a prison sentence for up to 7 years and 6 months. She was acquitted on May 21, 2021.

Award

* 2013, Traditional Turkey Journalism Awards in the category "Best Interview"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alphan, Melis 1978 births Living people Writers from İzmir Turkish journalists Turkish women's rights activists