Woman draws social media anger over racist, sexist video

ISTANBUL

A video of a woman dancing while hurling racist and sexist comments has caused public outcry and social media anger after it went viral. 

In the video, the woman praises the specialized sergeant Musa Orhan, who is accused of raping a local 18-year-old woman in an eastern province in Turkey and eventually causing her death, a recent attack on Kurdish seasonal workers in the northwestern province of Sakarya and another recent deadly attack on Kurdish construction workers in the western province of Afyonkarahisar. 

She is seen dancing in front of Turkish flags and gesturing the “Grey Wolf” sign with her hands. The “Grey Wolf” sign is gestured by far-right and ultranationalist circles in Turkey. 

The “grey wolf” gesture is formed by placing the ring and middle fingers on the thumb thus forming the head of a wolf, a symbol of Turkish nationalism. 

The woman quickly drew an avalanche of reaction and anger on social media, with many users tweeting with the hashtag “#IrkçıKadınTutuklansın” (The racist woman should be arrested). 

In Afyonkarahisar, construction workers were gunned down after a group accused them of causing dust in their neighborhood on Sept. 16, a worker died and two got wounded. The workers were Kurdish. 

In Sakarya, the owner of a land where seasonal workers were working attacked and beat them all on Sept. 5. The footage of the racist attack had angered social media users. 

Orhan, accused of having raped a young Kurdish woman, was dismissed from the army, but has been released from detention. His trial is continuing.