For the past five days, Simge Günsan has barely slept. "When I lie down, it feels like my ears are ringing," she shared, while taking deep drags on her cigarette. After thirteen years of silence, the 38-year-old actor and director finally decided to speak out. What began as a friendly New Year's Eve gathering quickly turned into a nightmare.
In a plain post published on social media, Günsan described plates thrown at her face, a hand grabbing her by the hair to slam her head against the wall, and being kicked while she lay on the ground. She eventually escaped the outburst of violence by locking herself in the bathroom. Ismaïl Sagir, her boyfriend at the time, claimed to have no memory of that drunken night. Only one of the two theater companies he was working with announced it was ending its collaboration with him.
According to statistics from the social media platform X, published by the data analysis site Veriler ne diyor?, more than 5,000 users shared testimonies or reactions on the subject of gender-based and sexual violence between August 19 and 26, the first week of the movement. The posts amassed over 30 million views, in what was already being called a #MeToo wave in the country.
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