Jailed female politician given extra year for calling Erdogan a misogynist

A prominent female ex-parliamentarian in Turkey has been sentenced to 11 months in prison for calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan an enemy of women, according to Al Arabiya English.

Sebahat Tuncel, 45, was sentenced on Saturday for saying Erdogan was a “complete misogynist” – a remark she made four years ago.

The 11 months has been added to the sentence she is already serving.

Last year, Tuncel was jailed 15 years for spreading terrorist propaganda and belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Tuncel, of Kurdish origin, has been described in Turkish media as a women’s rights activist. She served in Turkey’s parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party.

Her attorney argued that her statement that “the president was an enemy of women and Kurds”, made during a 2016 speech, was “within the limits of freedom of expression”, according to Turkish news outlet Duvar English. The court disagreed.

Tuncel is just one of thousands of Turks who have received prison time for insulting the Turkish president.

Turkey’s penal code criminalises insulting the president, with an offender typically facing a prison term of up to four years. The sentence can be increased if the insult is expressed in public, as in Tuncel’s case.

Over 3,800 people in Turkey received prison sentences in 2019 for insulting Erdogan, Turkish media reported last week.

Erdogan has said publicly that women are not equal to men and that women who reject motherhood are “deficient” and “incomplete”.