The killing of a mother by her ex-husband in front of her child has sent shockwaves across Turkey. Emine Bulut, 38, was stabbed to death in a cafe on 18 August in Kirikkale. Video posted to social media shows the mother screaming and holding her neck as her 10-year-old daughter begs her not to die.

According to “We Will Stop Femicide”, a women’s rights platform, 245 women have been killed in Turkey in the first seven months of 2019. The mother brought her daughter to the cafe to meet her ex-husband Fedai Veran where he attacked her.

Testifying in court, Varan said: “After she insulted me while talking about the custody of our child, I stabbed her with the knife I brought along.” He then got into a taxi and fled the scene. Ms Bulut later died in hospital. In the video footage from the cafe, the mother can be heard screaming “I don’t want to die” as her daughter begs her to live.

Buliut’s name and her last words are being used on social media to help reignite a debate about women’s rights in the country. The mayor of Istanbul wrote on his Twitter: “We lost Emine Bulut because of male violence. We stand by women and children in the fight against violence and we will continue to.”

A message from the Besiktas football team said: “We are not silent against this savage. We wish the killings of women to come to an end and the perpetrators will be tried with the most severe penalties. We won’t get used to it, we won’t shut up.”(BBC)…[+]