A trial has been started against the female leaders of the union Tekstil-Sen for having said "Kurdish women are oppressed" in a statement before March 8, 2008 at Sirinevler Squre, Istanbul. At the first hearing started on February 3, 2009 at the 28th Criminal Court, Istanbul, the union's general president as well as the general secretary and other union leaders defended them and said that they would eternally defend the Kurdish women's democratic rights. After the hearing, the union made a statment in front of Bakirkoy Courthouse and said the following: "We as Tekstil-Sen have always defended the Kurdish women's democratic rights and will do so again. In such a period where the state has opened a Kurdish TV channel and is discussing Kurdish education, it is to be thought about when a trial is started because of one sentence in a statement our union had made last year. This trial is a typical example for the AKP 's understanding of democracy." The 2nd hearing of the trial will take place on April 24, 2009.