Dilan Babat-Zeynep Turgut

 

VAN - Zübeyde Yeşil sings songs to draw attention to rights violations that political prisoners face. “I want to be their voice by singing songs while they are keeping their struggle inside,” said Zübeyde.

 

The most intense repression and rights violations have been experienced in prisons during the state of emergency declared in Turkey in July, 2016. Families often call for public awareness against ongoing rights violations and one-type uniform practice in prisons. Zübeyde Yeşil lives in the İskele Koç Neighborhood of Van’s İpekyolu district and her child and two relatives are in prison now. Zübeyde sings her songs for the political prisoners. Trying to break the walls of the prisons by singing songs, Zübeyde wants to announce what is going on in the political prisoners face in prisons with her songs.

 

‘I sing songs for political prisoners’

 

Zübeyde was forced into marriage while she was a child. She talks about when she began to sing as follows; “My marriage involved a bride exchange. The man I married was older than me. I began to express my pains and what I faced through songs when I went to highlands in the village. The men didn’t want the women to sing songs in those days. But I sang the songs everywhere despite everything.”

 

Zübeyde tells what she lives and witnesses by singing songs. She changed the style of her songs after her child and two relatives put in prison. Zübeyde began to sing her songs for political prisoners. Zübeyde said, “I sing my songs for political prisoners. We know what they face. We always pray for them to be released. I want to be their voice by singing songs while they are keeping their struggle inside.”