The Democratic Society Party announced that their Gaziosmanpaşa and Bağcılar district offices, both in Istanbul, had received poisoned letters.

Democratic Society Party deputy Geylani told how they had to walk the 70 Km to the opening of their branch office: The military banned driving on the way to their premises.

A member of the Supreme Curt of Appeals 1st Penal Chamber, announced that he would require there to be a “family council decision” in a murder with a motive of custom. Women lawyers say there is no such requirement in the law.

Activist Zozan Özgökçe is harassed on the street. She complains in spite of every man’s insistence that she should simply forgive the harassers. She thinks the problem will never go away, on the contrary will get worse, if the women are not persistent in filing complaints.

Democratic Society Party deputy Akın Birdal brought the topic of keeping files on people to the Parliament. He asked Interior Minister Beşir Atalay questions about the matter.

Fatma Şahin, a deputy for the Justice and Development Party, says they are expecting that the bill to form commission about the equality between men and women will become a law in September.

The police officers who beat up and insulted transsexual Esmeray in June 2007 for passing by the front of the station will be tried for the crime of “simple bashing and insulting.”

Women visitors are strip-searched at Tire Prison. Their external body opening, including their sexual organs, are inspected closely. Contemporary Jurists Association says this is illegal.

Thirty women from various organizations in Greece, Turkey, Northern and Southern Cyprus gathered at the Bosphorus University in Istanbul for an education program to improve their ability for working towards peaceful solutions.

The International Women’s Media Foundation awards Sevgül Uludağ, a journalist from Cyprus with the Courage in Journalism Award for her work done under very difficult conditions.

The prosecutor releases the husband who gave a beating to his wife for not conceiving a son. Lawyer Moroğlu says that this is against the new Penal Code, but the authorities are usually reluctant to apply the new measures.

The Human Rights Presidency, a government body, declares that its committees will inspect the police and gendarmerie detention centers unannounced and they want at least one member of them to come from the non-governmental organizations.