Özgecan Aslan was a young university student who was brutally murdered in south central Turkey in February 2015. She was killed on a minibus where she was the last passenger, after she resisted the driver’s attempt to rape her, with her nails and pepper spray.  In response, he cut off her hands, burned her body, and threw her into a river with the help of his father and a friend.

The callousness of her murder caused a brief nationwide movement all across Turkey in which women of all ages took to the streets wearing black to stand up against the murdering of women. Femicide (the murdering of women) is a widespread issue the country is still struggling to combat, and Özgecan Aslan has since become the symbol of female victims at the hand of violence and murder.