ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Amedspor, a Kurdish football club in Turkey, has decided to make the entry fee for women free of charge for their next match in response to the racist and sexist attacks against veteran Kurdish politician Leyla Zana by Turkish football fans.

Amedspor Vice President Seyda Arslantas announced that the team will “offer special free tickets specifically for our female fans,” during their match with Igdirspor on December 28th.

The announcement comes after Turkish fans hurled insults at the Kurdish woman politician during a football match between Bursaspor and Somaspor days prior, a move that drew widespread condemnation across Turkey and beyond.

Despite the mounting criticism from politicians, public figures, and rights groups, with the majority condemning the use of hate speech against Kurds, no official statement or action from Ankara has been issued yet.

Amedspor previously released a statement following the attack, condemning “the racism that is being normalized in the stands,” and “the insulting language and hate speech directed at women, particularly Leyla Zana.”

“By increasing the number of women in those stands, we will give the best possible response,” Arslantas told the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency.

“The racist and sexist attacks against Leyla Zana were an attack on women's identity, and Amedspor has been fighting for years to prevent the stands and sporting activities from being used as tools for such racist, discriminatory, and sexist rhetoric,” she added.

Somaspor, whose fans chanted the hateful rhetoric against Zana, has not made any statements condemning the matter.

The Kurdish team itself has often been subject to discriminatory attacks due to its Kurdish identity, and using the Kurdish term “Amed” for the province of Diyarbakir, with Turkish fans displaying photos of white Toros cars during one of the matches.

The white Toros cars refer to the series of kidnappings in the 1990s that led to thousands of disappearances in the Kurdish provinces by the Turkish government, who used the cars to perpetuate the act, becoming a symbol of persecution against the Kurdish population in Turkey.

Offensive chants targeting Kurds have occurred at previous matches in Turkey.

In October, during a Europa League match, an altercation broke out between VFB Stuttgart forward Deniz Undav, who was born to a Yazidi family from Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, and Fenerbahce player Ismail Yuksek. Fenerbahce fans directed sexist and racist chants at Undav during the match, drawing widespread criticism and attention on social media.

Zana, a 64-year-old politician and human rights activist, was the first Kurdish woman to be elected to the Turkish parliament in 1991. She famously swore a part of her oath in Kurdish when the language was illegal to use in public, leading to a decade of imprisonment, which rendered her a key figure in the Kurdish political movement in Turkey.