"After 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my PhD and to return home on my own timeline. The time stolen from me by the US government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for."
"I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights."
"In March 2024, Ozturk and three others co-wrote an op-ed piece for their college newspaper, the Tufts Daily, calling for the university to acknowledge what they termed a genocide of Palestinians."
"The newly installed second Trump administration used the op-ed as a pretext to accuse Ozturk of antisemitism and revoked her visa, leading to her arrest in March 2025."
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student, faced immigration challenges due to her pro-Palestinian activism, including a viral arrest by ICE. After completing her doctorate, she returned to Turkey to continue her work in child study and human development. Ozturk expressed pride in her academic achievements and criticized the US government's actions, stating that the time lost due to state-imposed violence was detrimental not only to her but also to the children she advocates for. She co-wrote an op-ed calling for acknowledgment of Palestinian genocide, which led to her visa revocation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]