Konca Kuriş (16 October 1961 – 1999) was a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

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 D ...

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

, on 20 July 1999 after having disappeared in 1998.

Death

Kuriş was allegedly a former member of the

Kurdish Hezbollah Kurdish Hezbollah ( ku, Hizbullahî Kurdî)
, turkishweekly.net known in

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.: , sing. ...

. 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 Hüseyin Velioğlu (born Hüseyin Durmaz; 1952 – 17 January 2000) was the leader of the Kurdish Hezbollah, a militant extremist organization in the early 1990s. Velioğlu led one of the wings of this organization. He was killed in a police op ...

, the Hizbollah leader was killed. She was 38.

Perpetrators

Kurdish Hezbollah Kurdish Hezbollah ( ku, Hizbullahî Kurdî)
, turkishweekly.net known in

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 Lennox Gardens, a park in Canberra, Australia, lying on the south side of Lake Burley Griffin, close to Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and Albert Hall in the suburb of Yarralumla. Before the construction of Lake Burley Griffin a road ran through ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

.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