Turkish author and former HDP member of parliament Hüda Kaya began serving a prison sentence at Elmadağ women’s prison in Ankara on Monday morning. She was sentenced to one and a half years in prison over an incident that occurred in 2022.
At that time, Kaya had visited her son, who was imprisoned in Çanakkale. According to the prison authorities, a cell phone was found in her bag as she was leaving – which was considered a violation of security regulations and prosecuted.
The sentence was not postponed on the grounds of Kaya’s previous convictions from the so-called “February 28 trial” in the late 1990s. At that time, the current ruling party, the AKP, was still in opposition.
Speaking to JIN TV before being sent to prison, Kaya expressed her gratitude for the support of numerous companions, activists, and relatives. She also expressed her hope that other imprisoned politicians, journalists, and fellow campaigners would “soon regain their freedom” and that this would be “a shared cause for celebration.”
Who is Hüda Kaya?
Hüda Kaya was born in Istanbul in 1960 and has been politically and socially active since the 1990s. She became known as an activist against the headscarf ban in Turkey. During the so-called February 28 period, when the military exerted pressure on Islamic-conservative circles, Kaya was arrested several times and sentenced to prison terms.
Kaya has been imprisoned several times, including for participating in protests against the headscarf ban and for articles she published. She later joined the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and was elected to the Turkish parliament three times, each time as a representative for Istanbul.
The mother of five is particularly committed to women’s rights, freedom of religion, minority rights, and political prisoners. Her biography is marked by political activism, long periods of imprisonment, and criticism of state repression.