Turkish volleyball star becomes target of homophobic slur

IZMIR, Turkey — Crushed under a tumbling lira, crippling inflation and rising taxes, many Turks enjoyed a moment of exhilaration when the national women’s volleyball team overpowered China on Sunday to claim their first-ever FIVB Nations League title. 

But the victory turned into a bitter domestic fight for women and LGBTQ rights after homophobic slurs against the team’s star player by arch-conservative daily Yeni Akit. While most newspapers’ headlines congratulated the team fondly known as “Sultans of the Net,” on July 18 Yeni Akit posted a photo of Ebrar Karakurt, the team’s opposition hitter, with the headline, “Here is the victory message of our national disgrace.” 

The photo shows Karakurt with the VNL gold medal around her neck. The six-foot-five volleyballer, who has cropped hair with bright pink highlights, quotes a stanza from Ismet Ozel, “Around my neck are jewels made of the shame of those who judge me — the gold medal." By quoting Ozel, a political poet who has turned from Marxism to Islam for inspiration, Karakurt made a thinly veiled jab at the Islamist conservatives who have attacked her for being a lesbian ever since she rose to national fame in 2021. 

Yeni Akit has previously denounced Karakurt, often diving into her social media posts to make news about her relationships and chastising her for being “a homosexual deviant flaunting a perverse lifestyle.”