Turkish woman commits suicide after being raped by her brother

22 year-old Aysun Altay (pictured above) committed suicide on Thursday, July 30 after her brother allegedly raped her. She shot herself in the heart with her boyfriend’s unlicensed gun. Prior to her death, she was said to have fallen into deep depression following the rape. Altay's brother has since been arrested and is in police custody.

In the suicide note she left her boyfriend, she wrote:

“I am tired of life and what I have gone through. Please do not be sorry after I leave.”

This is not the first time Altay tried to kill herself. She had reportedly cut her wrists twice, after telling her family she couldn't live with what her brother had done to her.

According to a compilation of statistics from Statistics Institute of Turkey (TÜİK), Sexual assault crimes have climbed by 30 percent during the 2008-2013 period. Based on the reports by Bianet, a Turkish press agency based in Istanbul, in the past 15 years, 50 percent of incest cases reported in Turkey were perpetrated by biological fathers, whereas other actors included uncles, brothers, grandfathers. Between 2005 and 2010, over 100,000 victims were subjected to sexual assault, but 40 percent did not file an official complaint mainly due to fear and shame. -

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