A nurse in Turkey has been detained and suspended from her job after posting a video of herself braiding her hair as part of a social media protest linked to violence against Kurdish women in northern Syria.

According to reporting by CEGA, the nurse, identified in Turkish media by her initials İ.A., worked at a public hospital in the northwestern province of Kocaeli. She posted a video from her workplace showing herself braiding her hair as part of a wider online trend, and later faced both criminal and administrative investigations by Turkish authorities. İ.A., a civil servant of Kurdish descent from Diyarbakır, a Kurdish-majority city in Turkey, has suggested that her ethnic background may have been the cause of her detention and suspension. The case has drawn criticism from human rights advocates and opposition figures, who say it reflects growing restrictions on freedom of expression and political symbolism in Turkey.

The social media trend, known in Turkish as a “saç örme akımı” (“hair-braiding movement”), began after a disturbing video........

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