Quake survivor twins sleeping at same bed expelled from dorm ‘for being homosexual’

Duvar English

Two earthquake survivor twin sisters studying at a high school in Antalya province were accused of "homosexuality" by the dormitory director and expelled from the dorm because they slept together in the same bed, according to reporting of journalist Mustafa Dilek.

The 16-year-old twins were trapped under the rubble for 4.5 hours after the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Hatay province which was gravely affected by the quakes. 

According to their father, the siblings were enrolled in a high school in Antalya after the earthquake to continue their education and started to stay in the dormitory of the same school. One of the twins started to sleep in the same bed with her sister for fear of being under the rubble.

One of the students complained about them to the dorm management and the dormitory counselor accused sisters of “being homosexual.”

Later, the deputy director of the dormitory called the father and said, "Your girls are homosexuals, we do not want them in the school and dormitory,” according to journo Dilek.

On the evening of Dec. 15, the dormitory management expelled the students without any justification. The twins spent that night at the house of an acquaintance of their fathers.

The school principal on Jan. 5 called father and said, "We have referred the children to disciplinary committee, deregister them from the school,” and added, "Your children gained a bad name here, I cannot keep them in school anymore.” 

The father of the twins said that he would sue the school officials and that he would not deregister the children.

"Being homosexual" is not a crime laid under any article of Turkish Penal Code or Education Ministry's regulations of dormitories. Nonetheless, as the government officials escalated their attacks on LGBTI+ community in Turkey, many student reportedly were expelled from state-run dormitories based on similar justifications.

Moreover, the government officials have been disseminating moral panic against the community to justify their decisions even when they are not directly regarding the LGBTI+ community as well.

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