Havva Kul did not study law. But for four years, she sat in every class at the Faculty of Law of Sakarya University in Turkey, as if she were the one taking the exams.
Her daughter, Berru Merve Kul, is blind. The university had no braille books or legal audiobooks, so Havva took notes during the day and, once home, read aloud to her every law, every case, every page of the most complex texts in the program. Night after night, for four years.
In July 2018, Berru graduated with honors at the age of 22 in Kocaeli, Turkey. And at the ceremony, Dean Mahmut Bilen did something no one expected: he awarded Havva an honorary law degree, on the same day as her daughter.
“We wanted to thank the mother and daughter, who showed tremendous effort”, he said. The video went viral, and thousands agreed on one thing: there were two lawyers on that stage, not one.
