A young Turkish woman, Aysegul Terzi, was attacked by a man on an Istanbul public bus earlier this month for wearing shorts. According to security camera footage and witness accounts, the man, identified as Abdullah Cakiroglu, shouted, “Why are you going about in shorts!” He then told the 23-year-old nurse, “You are the Satan,” and kicked her violently in the face. Terzi says the other passengers remained silent and the driver dumped her at the first stop. She went first to the hospital, and then filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office. The alleged assailant was caught and booked for “actual bodily harm” before walking free. He was soon re-arrested, but only after widespread outcry over his release.

Thus far, the story is almost ordinary for Turkey, where Terzi is neither the first nor the last woman to be attacked for what she wears or says, or simply for being present at a particular place. Scores of women before her have faced similar treatment, and only a few days later a woman was punched in the face by two men in Izmir after rejecting their advances, which, according to reports, were “emboldened” by her low-cut dress.

The assault on Terzi, however, sparked vocal indignation and protests. Since the Sept. 12 incident, women in various cities have taken to the streets, wearing shorts to assert their freedoms. Some have hung shorts and miniskirts on campus walls, others have shared pictures of themselves wearing shorts on social media. Though temperatures fell notably last week, the protests continued, with one bringing both women and men together in downtown Istanbul over the weekend. All were meant to give one message: Don’t meddle in my lifestyle!

Senal Sarihan, a deputy for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a supporter of the protests, believes the outcry is only the beginning of a backlash against what she sees as a long-standing drive to impose conservative values on society. “A certain mentality has become prevalent in Turkey, trying to darken all realms of life. An attempt is underway to impose a single lifestyle in accordance with the religious beliefs of one segment of society, to create a single type of people,” she told Al-Monitor. “And the recent incidents have now sent women up in arms. This in fact is only the beginning of the backlash.”