On November 4, 2018, a group of women film professionals initiated the #SusmaBitsin (Speak up to end) movement to fight against sexual harassment and discrimination in movie and TV series sets in Turkey. The movement is very inspiring in that it shows how effective women’s solidarity can become in such a short period of time. We came together with women from the movement to discuss the current situation and future actions.
Interview by Yeşim Tabak, Senem Aytaç
Photos by Ali İhsan Elmas
Until two years ago, while cases of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination in the cinema sector were well-known, they were in a way considered a reality one had to put up with. Harassers could go on with their lives without losing anything or giving up their career whereas the harassed had to do nothing but keep silent. Those who dared to speak up would be left alone, only to be burnt out. It was always “the same old story”. When the #MeToo movement, suddenly spread at an incredible pace after sexual harassment acts of Harvey Weinstein against a lot of actresses were exposed, this perception that was deemed unchangeable began to change. Of course, sexual harassment did not end, nor is it likely to end soon, but now more and more people view it as a very serious crime. This really is a big gain in terms of “collective mental health”. These developments have had significant repercussions in Turkey, too – among them is the #SusmaBitsin movement initiated by women film professionals to fight against sexual harassment and discrimination in film sets. We talked to four women film professionals actively involved in the movement during its initiation phase and/or through the meetings – Cihan Aslı Filiz (producer), Gizem Bayıksel (Pera Museum Film Programmer), Feride Çetin (actress/writer) and Ceylan Özgün Özçelik (director) – about the framework of #SusmaBitsin, steps taken so far and targets to be achieved.
Yeşim Tabak: How did the #SusmaBitsin movement come into being?
Cihan Aslı Filiz: Thanks to the #MeToo movement at the end of 2017, through which assault and harassment cases were exposed, 2018 turned out to be the “year of the women”. Many women found the courage to voice the harassment inflicted upon them, which also encouraged us to speak a bit more loudly. The panel “It’s high time: Sexual Harassment in Film Industry” held at Filmmor Women’s Films Festival brought together many women film professionals. After that panel, we created a Whatsapp group to communicate further about this issue. Then we decided to organize a meeting with an open call to all women working in the field of cinema. Our first meeting took place on November 4, 2018. This first meeting was in a way triggered by both the case of actor Talat Bulut1 and the harassment actress Elit İşcan2 went through. The meeting received a lot of participation, partly due to the empowerment through the exposition of these cases and the ensuing discussions. In our call to that meeting, we had neither decided on the hashtag #SusmaBitsin nor had a clear idea about the format of the meeting. At the end of this meeting attended by more than a hundred women, we felt both empowered and touched. We women are assured that issues discussed at #SusmaBitsin meetings will not be disclosed elsewhere; we can expose cases to the extent that we choose, either by revealing the name(s) or not; we feel the support of other women and have the opportunity to speak out and make changes in the sector mainly thanks to this empowerment – these are all very important. We have had four meetings so far. A year into the #SusmaBitsin movement, we can define it as a platform of solidarity with a will to speak out for the future.
Y.T.: To raise awareness, #SusmaBitsin has broadcast videos attracting attention to ways of harassment at film sets. Could you inform us about them?
Gizem Bayıksel: We broadcast #ThatsHarassment videos from USA with Turkish subtitles. These videos clearly define ways of harassment inflicted upon women at workplaces, not necessarily in the form of brute harassment, in other words, grope or rape. The subtitled versions can now be watched online on the Instagram and Facebook profiles of #SusmaBitsin. We also broadcast these videos before the screenings of the films in the No More Flowers section of Istanbul Film Festival. We want to make our own videos as well. We have started setting up groups to work on different tasks such as video making and script writing.
Y.T.: Last October, Elit İşcan made a statement that she was exposed to sexual harassment and insults by her cast mate Efecan Şenolsun in the TV series Yaşamayanlar (Immortals, 2018) and a lot of people showed their support for her through the #SusmaBitsin hashtag on social media. At the end of the investigation launched upon the complaint by İşcan, a lawsuit was filed against Şenolsun in April demanding a sentence of up to 17 years and 4 months in prison. Then, the character acted by Şenolsun in the TV series Çarpışma (Crash, 2018) was dropped when the scenario team made the woman he had been torturing kill him. In your opinion, has the will expressed by #SusmaBitsin had an impact on this whole process?
Feride Çetin: I think it has, yes. As an actress acting in theatre as well as films and TV series, I’ve often come across people associating this movement with this court case in my work places.
G.B.: The filing of a lawsuit is of course a gain because, as we have seen in some of the previous cases of disclosure, sometimes no suing takes place or, on the contrary, sometimes the harasser talks about filing a lawsuit himself. To be honest, when Elit first shared her incident, I didn’t expect so much reaction, but her hashtags and name immediately became “trending topics” on Twitter. Even the international fans of the series shared “mention”s such as “Drop him from the series”. In the aftermath, the empowerment provided by the women in the sector through #SusmaBitsin had a serious impact.
Y:T.: What kind of reactions do you receive from within the sector?
F.Ç.: We got really weird reactions from men. “What now? Are you engaged in a movement against us? What did you discuss?” and so on. We are constantly under pressure with questions like “Who did you talk about? Is there a list?” They found the movement strange.
Ceylan Özgün Özçelik: Well, because it concerns most of them.
Senem Aytaç: The fear of “Did someone mention my name?” means a lot by itself.
F.Ç.: When I first entered the profession, there were no elder women around to support me about this issue. Yet, as years went by, with the establishment of Actors’ Union, we began to talk more about it. Now, through this movement and also because of my age, as soon as I enter film sets, I bring up this issue in one way or another. Now I feel more comfortable in telling women film professionals younger than me “If any such thing happens, I am the one you can approach, you are not alone” because I really began to feel stronger in our meetings, as I saw that I am not alone.
The Principles of #SusmaBitsin
1. Making a film and/or TV series requires collective effort. Each team member must treat others and their work with respect
2. Sexual harassment, discrimination, homophobic and transphobic violence cannot be tolerated in our offices and sets, which are our workplaces.
3. The hierarchical structure does not entitle anyone to attack the personal rights of others.
4. Everyone must behave with professionalism in professional and social spheres.
5. Those exposed to behavior that crosses personal boundaries have the right to talk directly to producers, speak up about the incident and exercise all their legal rights. The producers are supposed to make all necessary interventions.
C.A.F.: In one of our meetings, we came up with a set of principles and shared them with producers, starting from Mor Yapımcılar3. These are really general principles – we could even call them superficial. We wrote them in a soft tone so that as many people as possible would accept and share them in their sets. However, these principles ended up receiving a lot of reaction from men in sets. Here are some examples: “What do you intend to call us?” “Are we jerks?” “Are we harassers?”. Let me share with you our principles: “1. Making a film and/or TV series requires collective effort. Each team member must treat others and their work with respect. 2. Sexual harassment, discrimination, homophobic and transphobic violence cannot be tolerated in our offices and sets, which are our workplaces. 3. The hierarchical structure does not entitle anyone to attack the personal rights of others. 4. Everyone must behave with professionalism in professional and social spheres. 5. Those exposed to behavior that crosses personal boundaries have the right to talk directly to producers, speak up about the incident and exercise all their legal rights. The producers are supposed to make all necessary interventions.” The principles are these, yet upon reading them, men could react by asking “Do you call us harassers?”
S.A.: Well actually, the principles do not denote any gender. There is no specific expression as to who does what to whom.
C.A.F.: It is really problematic that men can exclude themselves to this extent. You face the accusation of placing men in the position of harassers even when you speak up just a little. Nobody thinks for a second and says “There is such an issue in the sector. What can I do about this issue?” And those who say that do so through the question: “Why don’t you let us join your meetings?”. Yet, it is up to us to decide whether we will let men into our meetings or not.
C.Ö.Ö.: Of course this might be possible in the future, but now we are in the stage of pouring out our experiences. And during this stage, it is quite natural for a woman to feel uncomfortable with the presence of a man there.
Y.T.: And what happens when women postpone pouring out incidents?
Ceylan Özgün Özçelik: Harassment takes place in so many sets – I have many female friends working as producers and directors who have heard sentences like ‘You are not young anymore, get married and give birth.’
C.Ö.Ö.: While mostly actresses are harassed, we cannot really make such a distinction. From the assistant director to the make-up artist, from the costume assistant to the producer, everyone is exposed to various forms of harassment. Harassment takes place in so many sets – I have many female friends working as producers and directors who have heard sentences like “You are not young anymore, get married and give birth. Look, you are getting older.” And a lot of actresses are shy of speaking about what they have experienced at sets because their manager or agency probably discourages them through remarks like “You won’t be able to get jobs in the future. Everyone will take a stand against you. The psychological war on social media will drain you”. There is no end to psychological violence. In my experience as a director, I have seen that there are always a group of men in the sets who think they know much better than you and try to present their “vast” knowledge to everyone. You really waste a great deal of time and energy persuading them that you have had a route of your own for years, and you try to do this in a way that won’t create tension in the set. We demand sets where everyone respects the boundaries of each other and where no mansplaining takes place.
F.Ç.: I’ve witnessed that all the women directors I worked with were exposed to mansplaining. Especially by the camera crew since there are few women in camera crews.
G.B.: Speaking of this…There was a period when I was in search of educational institutions on direction of photography. During my contact with schools in Turkey and abroad, I constantly heard remarks like: “You must build strong muscles”, “Will you really be able to hold that camera?”, “If you want, let’s test it first” etc. In one of our meetings, film editor Çiçek Kahraman shared this anecdote: During a preliminary meeting for a film project, a man told Birgit Gudjonsdóttir, the director of photography of Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz (Our Grand Despair, 2011): “This whole film will be shot with a shoulder camera. It will be too heavy for you.” And her reply was: “Do you know how much a 3-year-old child weighs? About the same as a 35 mm film camera. And no one ever questions whether a woman can become a mother considering this fact.” Well, I want to link it to this: While we are exposed to so much injustice and while we are in fact so strong, why is it us who are supposed to be “reasonable” even when declaring our principles? This really preoccupies me.
C.A.F.: We also aim to define the harassment or discrimination we all experience at different levels, and prepare a dictionary related to that. Setting up a database composed of verified cases is among our projects, as well. We plan to establish an online platform with the names of male harassers, accessible to members only. Apart from these, we had a meeting with the Cinema-TV Union in Turkey and asked them to include an article on harassment in the draft agreements they were preparing to be used in the sector. Now, harassment is included within the definition of occupational safety in these drafts.
S.A.: What is the role attributed to #SusmaBitsin in the sector now?
C.A.F.: It has already achieved recognition. I believe its role will gradually be reinforced and – although it is too early now – it will have sanctionary authority in the sector in time.
Gizem Bayıksel: The priority here is feeling safe and increasing safe spheres. The fact that Mor Yapımcılar read aloud those principles in their sets, for instance, paves the way for that.
G.B.: The priority here is feeling safe and increasing safe spheres. The fact that Mor Yapımcılar read aloud those principles in their sets, for instance, paves the way for that.
C.A.F.: Even if reading aloud the principles may not prevent acts of harassment, a woman working in such a set will know that if any such thing happens, she will have someone to talk to, someone who will address the issue.
G.B.: In a way, it will prevent women from keeping silent.
C.A.F.: Of course, we do not oblige anyone to speak out. A woman speaks out whenever she wants, as much as she wants. What matters is protecting her and standing by her. We are not yet in a position to provide a hotline number, but we are here – those in need may contact any one of us. We will figure out what we can do.
C.Ö.Ö: Actually one of my dreams is to work with a film crew mainly composed of women, or a crew at least half of whose members are women. This is now possible in a short film or documentary project, but it is difficult in relatively big productions. Sets, lighting and sound crews, in particular, are male-dominated.
Y.T.: In reality, the history of silent cinema shows us that before the studio system settled, there was a short period of time when women were quite active, or more active than we think, as directors behind the camera. Recently, the number of female directors and directors of photography is on the rise. Having been working in sets for about 20 years, what do you think Feride? Have you observed any changes?
Feride Çetin: Now, especially in the last 5-6 years, I have come across many female DITs, focus pullers or boom operators, so I am hopeful.
F.Ç.: I started working in the sector twenty years ago. First I was behind the camera, and now I have 15 years of experience in acting. While I was studying at Istanbul University, our instructors in the workshops tended to think that “women cannot make films”. They would ask us “Are you ready to have jaundice? Are you ready to stay up all night at the set?” They did not foresee a future for women at sets; the only plausible options were becoming a writer or faculty member. No one ever talked about positions in camera, sound or lighting crews. But now, especially in the last 5-6 years, I have come across many female DITs, focus pullers or boom operators, so I am hopeful. Besides the issue of whether a woman can work at sets, there is also the issue of how a woman can exist there. Film director Bilge Olgaç would get dressed up on the first and last days of her set. On the other days, she would behave in a more masculine manner so as to set a patriarchal tone. However, in the sets where I work, I encourage the assistants and actresses to get dressed and put on make-up as they wish, in order to be able to say “We are here. We are not like you. We exist the way we are.” I don’t ask all women to do so, but I tell my colleagues that we will stand by them if they feel such pressure.
Y.T.: Getting dressed up or not, asking for jobs that require physical strength or technical skills or not – all these are personal preferences, not having to do with being a man or woman.
S.A.: The common tendency is trying to be invisible or mannish since the idea that “You can exist there only if you make your femininity invisible” puts pressure on women.
C.Ö.Ö.: Women are also invisible in cinema-related publications or events. When a list is prepared for the best directors and films, almost no woman can make it to the list. Sometimes there is only one woman in such lists, but then it is most probably accidental. Or, in film clubs and retrospective screenings, we keep watching “the great men”. Mostly, masterpieces by women cannot make it to lists, magazines or programs. We have not even heard of many pioneer women.
C.A.F.: Of course we don’t claim that a work should be considered a masterpiece just because it was created by a woman. However, a nice work must be visible.
Y.T.: We can assert that the history of cinema must be rewritten. Especially before the Internet, if one desired to acquire knowledge of cinema, the “masterpieces” s/he would find in books reflected only a man’s world and point of view. As a matter of fact, our passion for cinema forced us to internalize so many misogynist messages.
C.Ö.Ö.: For example, how many people today have heard of Germaine Dulac in relation to surrealist cinema? Few people have heard of her, even among cinema students.
S.A.: But at present, the history of cinema is being rewritten in that respect. Ok, it is still a niche field, such knowledge has only recently been spreading, and we are getting acquainted with it only now, yet the first period of the cinema history abounds in women filmmakers. I guess it was Hito Steyerl to mention this about Soviet Montage: It was a movement marked by montage in the foreground as its name indicates, but the most famous name is Dziga Vertov. A figure like Esfir Shub is not known to people. Similarly, Elizaveta Svilova, who edited Man with a Movie Camera, is unknown. Why is the “man with a movie camera” well-known while the woman movie editor is not?
Cihan Aslı Filiz: #MeToo is not just a hashtag; it is the result of an enormous struggle. Riding on its wave, we are holding these meetings here, and taking steps.
C.A.F.: It is highly valuable that all these are being discussed now. #MeToo is not just a hashtag; it is the result of an enormous struggle. Riding on its wave, we are holding these meetings here, and taking steps (albeit small ones), which will make many issues including that of visibility open to change.
F.Ç.: Only last year, the presence of women on stage was being discussed in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Upon that, we read our lines in Kenter Theater and stated that we would always be on stage, but we were facing an aggressive situation at that time. Well, Afife Jale, the first Muslim actress on the Turkish stage, was beaten in the police station for being an actress less than a century ago. The struggle in the West has been ongoing for a longer period of time. We should act with patience, too.
S.A.: Although there is little continuity aftwerwards, there was a feminist movement in the Ottoman Era. There was a powerful feminist movement in the 80s, too. But we cannot turn this into an uninterrupted tradition; we live as if everything starts from scratch today. Feride, as you have mentioned, the absence of a generation that could protect and guide you at the beginning of your career may also have to do with this.
F.Ç.: In my first film, I argued with the director and told him that what he did was kind of a harassment. An actress elder than me was then sent to talk to me, and she told me: “Feride, it can’t go on like this; you must follow what your director asks you to do.”
C.A.F.: Harassment can take so many diverse forms – this is what startles me most. Here is an example that haunts me: a woman dressed in an extremely masculine manner was faced with laughter when her nipples stuck out in the wind as she felt cold. As I said, what upsets or strikes me most in the #SusmaBitsin meetings is finding out the so many different ways in which we are harassed.
Senem Aytaç: Women also learn a lot during this process. In order for a woman to be able to say ‘This is harassment’ to a harasser, she should first be able to define the incident as harassment on her own.
Senem Aytaç: Women also learn a lot during this process. In order for a woman to be able to say ‘This is harassment’ to a harasser, she should first be able to define the incident as harassment on her own.
S.A.: Women also learn a lot during this process. In order for a woman to be able to say “This is harassment” to a harasser, she should first be able to define the incident as harassment on her own. #SusmaBitsin is not a movement where everyone is equally aware concerning issues like womanhood and feminism. We all learn something thanks to sharing our experiences and interacting with others.
F.Ç.: After the first meeting, so many of us found out that we were not fully aware of what “manufacturing consent” meant; #SusmaBitsin helped us learn it. Yes, we were familiar with the concept before, but we didn’t know what exactly it referred to. Even the meaning of the sentence “The statement of the woman is essential” was not clear to everyone.
C.A.F.: For us, “The statement of the woman is essential” does not mean that whatever the woman declares must be accepted as true. Rather, we say “This is worth an investigation”. It will be investigated, and in the end we might learn that the woman was not right and she was a slanderer. It doesn’t matter; what matters is that the woman’s utterance is worth being acted upon. Yes, this was an issue we discussed a lot during our meetings.
Y.T.: What are the contested issues among women during the meetings?
G.B.: In the meetings there were moments when I really felt “I am in the right place”. We turn a blind eye to many things we experience, which results in the internalization of harassments, mobbing and so on. Yet, we can feel empowered to go on only when we listen to the criticisms of our friends, engage in self-criticism and address the issue.
C.Ö.Ö.: I am sure most of us have witnessed incidents upon which we stepped back and failed to provide enough support to the aggrieved.
C.A.F.: Yes, this issue does come up at every meeting. It is easy to immediately speak up about harassers or to say “We are not going to work with you” if those men are not in our cast, or if we don’t plan to work together with them. But can we disclose a name so easily if the man is in our close environment? Or can we stand by the woman? In the meetings we criticize ourselves and ask questions like “What would we do in such cases?”
Yeşim Tabak: Nobody has to be a great hero and stand against the whole sector all alone. Sometimes even minimum empathy can be so empowering.
Y.T.: Nobody has to be a great hero and stand against the whole sector all alone. Sometimes even minimum empathy can be so empowering.
F.Ç.: I think actress Beren Saat’s4 statements on her experience of being harassed by channel managers and an actor are really valuable. At that time, a lot of columnists asked her to disclose names and speak up more openly, but I wrote a piece to support her. What she did was a brave thing, leading to many developments. That wasn’t good for her career, though.
S.A.: Class plays a role here, doesn’t it? We have to take it into account, too. It is not the same thing when a powerful actress declares something and when a costume assistant does so. When the voice of an influential person is heard, it might somehow create protection for everyone.
C.A.F.: It is easy to stand by the singer Sıla5, for instance, for the very reason you’ve mentioned. But we should stand by a costume assistant, too. Thus, our togetherness in #SusmaBitsin and similar movements is so significant.
Y.T.: It is also worth mentioning that so many men, so many respected artists (Michael Haneke and many others) have expressed their discomfort with such movements, which proves that a very crucial issue is indeed at stake here. #MeToo could be considered a great revolution because we all had a more or less clear idea of (or, guessed) what was going on, but thought such issues could not be overcome – “the same old story”. The speaking up of actresses and the subsequent dethroning of Weinstein, a man at the top of the cinema world, created a new way of perception.
C.Ö.Ö.: For example, there were some actresses who disappeared after receiving an Oscar; we were wondering where they were – we found out that their careers were ended by some people. After #MeToo, I don’t think it will be that easy to end the career of an actress in the same way.
Y.T.: This movement and its capacity to shake the status quo remind me of the fact that cinema is not just a space of power, an “industry”, a “market”, but it is also a form of art. For instance, the man who tries to impose on a female director a certain way to shoot a scene is at the same trying to preserve the status quo – saying “You should shoot it in this way” has nothing to do with creativity. This is not how cinema proceeded; on the contrary, it reached its current state thanks to people coming up with original solutions. I believe the more active involvement of the female perspective will liberate cinema in the long run.
S.A.: Definitely. It is about building a new language. Just like written language, visual language also has dictionaries and concepts. And that language can also be transformed. It is complicated of course. For example, how and for how long will a man who has committed a crime pay for it? This is an issue that raises question marks for me, too.
C.A.F.: That’s a tough question. It is often raised in meetings, but there is no easy answer. What should these men do until we can say “OK, from now on we can work with him”? Generally, we conclude that this will be up to the feelings of the harassed to some extent.
S.A.: On the other hand, such traumas do not always surface instantly; sometimes it takes a decade after the incident for a person to feel its traumatic impact. This makes things even more complicated.
F.Ç.: Consider Kevin Spacey, for instance. For how many more years will he be excluded from the sector?
C.A.F.: I guess a mechanism of genuine self-criticism and apology will be decisive. But finding how it can be achieved beyond a “domineering” position, without looking down on anyone is a real challenge.
G.B.: And then there is the issue of genuineness – it also makes me ponder a lot. How can we measure genuineness? The harasser may be presenting to the public a text (in the form of self-criticism or statement) created/written together with someone who has a good command of rhetorics.
C.A.F.: We cannot read intentions anyway. Even if he has somebody else write a text, it is still a valuable effort. Well, if he repeats what he has done, of course you don’t trust that apology any more, that’s possible. But in my opinion, it is not right to ignore someone putting in effort.
S.A.: But now, the opposite happens. For example, in the case of Sıla, we read Ahmet Kural’s statement and say “If only he hadn’t made that statement”. In all the examples up to now, statements have just added insult to injury.
C.Ö.Ö.: Those statements openly declare this: “I did it”.
C.A.F.: We will be baffled if we come across a real apology, but we haven’t yet. For, no one really knows how to apologize.
S.A.: Yes, what will we do if we come across genuine self-criticism one day?
C.A.F.: Perhaps, by that time, we will have found a method. For the time being, they are unable to apologize anyway.
Y.T.: My male friends, whom I could almost consider feminists, also express their concerns like “From now on, will we even be scared of flirting?”. Of course this is also troublesome, but considering the fact that women have been disturbed and put to shame for utterly pointless reasons for thousands of years, I feel that we have to go through this difficult transition period together.
C.A.F.: Another crucial aspect is that the steps we’ll take should not end up in conservatism. We discuss this a lot in our meetings, too. We don’t say “Don’t approach anyone” or “Don’t flirt with anyone”. But one should be able to treat a “No” like a “No”. We can never defend an idea like “Men should stay away from women” – after all, we are also flirting with men.
S.A.: The question ‘What now? Can’t we flirt any more?’ is so problematic. It assumes that the active one, the flirting one is the man, and the flirted one is the woman, so flirting will come to an end all of a sudden. This perspective is also based on a fixed subject. We are not against flirting. The thing is you simply cannot force anyone by ignoring her reactions and harassing her. I find it exhausting that, alongside their painstaking struggle, women also have the duty of educating and teaching men, raising their awareness.
G.B.: Actually we don’t have such a mission. We simply try to explain very basic things such as what is harassment, what is a statement, what is consent. But of course, in the year 2019, as the world is rapidly transforming, the fact that we are still discussing these gives us much food for thought.
S.A.: Well, the world also moves towards different directions. Anti-abortion laws are put into effect again in some countries, for instance.
Y.T.: When #MeToo emerged in 2017, we were watching on TV the women’s slave markets of ISIS in the meantime. Scenes from the Middle Ages on one side, a too-good-to-be-true leap on the other. Interesting times. I believe a balance will be found in time.
S.A.: What will be the next steps of #SusmaBitsin?
C.A.F.: As we said before, we’ll prepare a database, make videos and keep holding quarterly meetings.
Translation by Duygu Çınga
NOTES
[1] The TV series Yasak Elma’s (Forbidden Apple, 2018–) costume assistant Özge Şimşek filed a criminal complaint against the actor Talat Bulut for sexually harassing her during filming in Istanbul on May 31, 2018. The chief prosecutor decided not to indict Bulut.
[2] Elit İşcan, a young actress, known for her roles in Hayat Var (My Only Sunshine, 2008) and Mustang (2015), said she was sexually harassed by actor Efecan Şenolsun at the set of the online series Yaşamayanlar (Immortals, 2018). She sued Şenolsun and the court case still continues.
[3] Established in 2018, Mor Yapımcılar is a platform of female producers who came together to take action against the cases of harassment and discrimination in cinema and TV industries.
[4] After a 20-year-old woman, Özgecan Aslan was brutally killed in Turkey on February 11, 2015, many women shared their sexual harassment stories under the hashtag #sendeanlat (you tell your story too). Beren Saat, a famous actress was one of them, who told in her Instagram account that she was sexually harassed by a TV channel administrator and an actor.
[5] Famous pop singer Sıla Gençoğlu filed a legal complaint against her ex-boyfriend, actor Ahmet Kural, claiming that he insulted and attacked her in his home on October 29 2018. The court handed down a prison sentence of 1 year, 4 months and 20 days on charges of insult, threat and deliberate injury. The execution was suspended due to the fact that Kural did not commit any criminal offense in the past.
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