A 23-Year-Old Woman Was Killed While Defending 2 Girls From Being Harassed By A Man
While Germany's president described Tugce Albayrak, a 23-year-old student teacher, as a role model, more than 141,000 people have signed a petition demanding a posthumous medal for her.
By Sadho Ram — 02 Dec 2014, 03:02 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
Germans are mourning the death of this young Turkish-German teaching student Tugce Albayrak, who tried to stop a young man from taunting two teenage girls in the city of Offenbach
As per a BBC report, Albayrak came to the aid of the girls on 15 November after she heard their cries in the toilets of a McDonald's
Bild newspaper published the video of the 15 November attack, outside a fast-food restaurant in the town of Offenbach, near Frankfurt.
Another man is seen trying to restrain the suspect, named only as Senal M, before he throws the fatal punch which leaves Ms Albayrak lying flat on the ground, motionless among a group of people.
In a chilling surveillance video posted online by the Bild Zeitung newspaper, the student, Tugce Albayrak, who had intervened to help the girls, can be seen becoming involved in an altercation with the young man in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Offenbach, a town near Frankfurt, in mid-November. Much is murky in the video, but a young woman with dark hair falls to the concrete ground of the parking lot, and then is still.
nytimes.com
She was in a coma for two weeks before her life support was switched off on Friday, 28 November, her 23rd birthday
She sustained a serious head injury and was in a coma until Nov. 28, when her parents decided to turn off her life support after doctors told them she was brain-dead. She died on her 23rd birthday.
Germans have been holding candlelight vigils to honour Albayrak, whose death ignited a national debate about acts of civil courage. Thousands of Germans paid tribute to Albayrak at the weekend.
Eintracht Frankfurt footballer Haris Seferovic paid tribute to Ms Albayrak after scoring against Borussia Dortmund
Image via bbcimg.co.uk
A card from a 10-year-old girl left outside the hospital in Offenbach on Sunday reads: "Dear Tugce, I admire your courage. You are a hero. Rest in peace."
Image via bbcimg.co.uk
People rally in Berlin to remember Tuğçe Albayrak, who died after being beaten in an apparent revenge attack
Image via guim.co.uk
Vigil outside the hospital that treated Tugce Albayrak in Offenbach am Mein, Germany, Nov. 28, 2014.
Image via wordpress.com
Tributes for Tugce Albayrak continue to emerge in Germany over the weekend
Image via independent.co.uk
So far, more than 141,000 people have signed an online petition asking Germany's President, Joachim Gauck, to award her Germany's national order of merit in recognition of her bravery
By Dec. 1 more than 141,000 people across Germany and further afield had signed a petition calling on the German President Joachim Gauck to award Albayrak a Federal Order of Merit.
There is a precedent — five years ago the medal was given posthumously to Dominik Brunner, a German killed trying to stop a brawl — and Gauck has already indicated that he is giving serious consideration to Albayrak’s case.
“Whilst others looked away,” Gauck wrote in a letter to Albayrak’s parents — and the CCTV footage suggests the phrase is literally true, “Tugce showed bravery and civil courage in an exemplary fashion.”
She was, he said, a role model.
time.com
Albayrak also became the unwitting avatar of the dangers posed to women simply by being women, with up to 70% of women expected to experience violence during their lifetimes
That the figures put out by the United Nations to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November. The girls Albayrak sought to help were also victims or potential victims, but public opinion hardened against them when they proved slow to contact the police to give witness statements.
The accounts of other witnesses suggested that they had been surrounded by men in or near the toilets at the McDonald’s and that Albayrak, hearing the commotion, intervened. Later, out in the car park, a man who may have been involved in the first incident paced up and down, and despite attempts to restrain him, eventually lunged at Albayrak. An 18-year-old, identified as Sanel M, is in custody.
On 1 December, the department of public prosecution confirmed that the girls had also been located and interviewed. Albayrak may now receive justice. It is what she stood for in the final hours of her conscious life.
time.com
About 180,000 people have "Liked" a Facebook page established by Albayrak's friends, which is headlined, "Tugce showed civic courage; let us show her respect." McDonald's paid for a full-page ad in Tuesday's editions of Bild. "We grieve for an extraordinary woman, who showed civic courage and in doing so lost her life," the ad says, in German and Turkish, as per a report by NYT.
