Istanbul: Asena Melisa Saglam encountered a stranger who kept murmuring, but she chose to ignore him initially.
When the bus halted at a stop, the man seated behind, suddenly attacked Saglam in the face. He slapped her so the side of her jaw hit the bus window
Shocked by the assault, she tried to retaliate, only to get pushed, and beaten again. The man hopped off the bus and escaped.
Saglam said that throughout the journey the man had been verbally harassing her by saying she should not be wearing shorts during Ramadan.
In the video that has now gone viral, one co-passenger got up to help the woman, visibly shaken by what had happened.
Saglam, 21, was quoted by the HurrDailyas saying, “From the moment, I sat down he was making these remarks ‘you dress like this during Ramadan? You should feel ashamed to be dressed like that’.”
Reports state that the man simply said that, Saglam’s shorts ‘provoked’ him as he considered it an insult to the holy month of Ramadan.
The man was then let free, causing an uproar among women rights activists across Turkey. “The release of the attacker is a threat to all women,” said the women’s rights organization.
“We will wear whatever we want outside. We will not give up our freedoms,” it read.
Following the protests, an order was given to re-arrest the man. It later emerged that he had been held in jail since Sunday on separate accusations of committing a tax crime and is also wanted for drugs offences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTT8IbBQ78o