Zehra Doğan


Zehra Doğan is a Kurdish artist and journalist and author from Amed, Turkey. She is a founder and the editor of Jinha, a feminist Kurdish news agency with an all-female staff. In 2017, she was sentenced to 2 years, 9 months and 22 days in prison for “terrorist propaganda” because of her news coverage, social media posts, and sharing a painting of hers on social media. Her painting depicts the destruction of the Nusaybin, town in southeastern Turkey, after the clashes between state security forces and Kurdish insurgents. After she finished her sentence, she was released from imprisonment from Tarsus Prison on 24 February 2019.

Career

In February 2016, Doğan moved to and began reporting from Nusaybin. On 21 July 2016, she was detained at a café in Nusaybin and then incarcerated on July 23rd in Diyarbakir prison. On 2 March 2017, she was acquitted of the charge of "belonging to an illegal organisation", but was sentenced to 2 years, 9 months and 22 days in jail for her news reporting and posting a painting to social media.
“I was given two years and 10 months only because I painted Turkish flags on destroyed buildings. However, they caused this. I only painted it,” Doğan wrote on Twitter following the sentencing.
In prison, she and other women created the newspaper Özgür Gündem Zindan, whose name is a play on Özgür Gündem, an Istanbul-based publication that catered to Kurdish audiences.
Her publication Jinha was shut down on 29 October 2016 by Turkish authorities, one of over 100 media outlets shut down since the failed military coup in July 2016.

Recognition

In 2015, Doğan was the recipient of the Metin Göktepe Journalism Award, named after the journalist who died in police custody in Turkey in 1996. The award was for Zehra Doğan's work about Yazidi women escaping from ISIS captivity.
In January 2017, she was recognized by the "Rebellion's Artist in the World 2017" award bestowed by the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
On November 5 2017, the Freethinkers Association of Switzerland, Frei Denken, awarded her the "Freethinker Prize" for 2017, along with Masih Alinejad, the Iranian journalist.
At the end of 2017, she was awarded the prize for artists in rebellion by the Global Investigative Journalism Network.
On May 3 2018, Deutscher Journalisten Verbrand awarded the "Spring of Press Freedom" prize to Zehra Doğan. German-Italian journalist Ingo Zamperoni received the prize on her behalf.
In October 2018, Doğan received the International Women's Media Foundation's 2018 Courage in Journalism Award.
In October 2018, Zehra Doğan became an honorary member of PEN International at its 84th Congress in India.
In March 2019, Doğan was nominated for Index on Censorship’s 2019 Freedom of Expression Awards in the Arts category. She received the prize in London on April 5 2019.
On October 11 2019 in Beyrouth, she received the "Exceptional Courage in Journalism Award" of the May Chidiac Foundation.

International reaction

In November 2017, Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei published a letter he wrote in solidarity with Doğan's case, drawing parallels between Chinese and Turkish repression of artistic expression. Zehra Doğan answers the artist from prison: “Art is the best instrument for the struggle”.
On 16 March 2018, England-based graffiti artist, Banksy unveiled a mural in New York, measuring 70 feet long, showing black tally marks for the days of Doğan's imprisonment, with one set becoming bars behind which Doğan's face looks out from jail. Speaking to The New York Times, Banksy said, "I really feel for her... I’ve painted things much more worthy of a custodial sentence.”

Exhibitions