Turkish Mom Who Read Daughter's Lecture Notes Honored

A Turkish mom who read her daughter’s law lecture notes for four years walked up to a university podium and got her own certificate.

Havva Kul lived in Kocaeli and went with her daughter, Berru Merve Kul, a visually impaired law student, to Sakarya University in Turkey every day, Daily Sabah reported. By July 13, 2018, images of the ceremony had been shared tens of thousands of times across Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

The university recognized Havva for reading Berru’s lecture notes through the four-year course, the BBC reported. Professor Mahmut Bilen, dean of the university’s Law Faculty, presented the award.

“We wanted to thank the mother and the daughter who have shown a great deal of effort,” Bilen said.

Bilen shared a video of the ceremony. It showed students and professors applauding as mother and daughter went to the podium together. Berru collected her graduation certificate, and Havva collected an honorary certificate of her own.

A heavy course load

Berru graduated from the Department of Law with honors. The law curriculum was a heavy one, and Havva read lecture notes and law books to help her daughter get through it.

The university saw Berru finishing with honors despite her visual impairment as an achievement that took significant sacrifice.

How the internet reacted

Coverage of the award pulled in more than 58,000 likes on Reddit. One blogger’s tweet calling Havva “mother of the year” passed 88,000 likes.

Another social media user went bigger, calling her “not just the mother of the year but of the century.”

“There are no words to define this perfect mother,” one commenter wrote. On Facebook, Tabularin Yikilisi wrote, “What a wonderful mother you are.”

One Reddit user joked about how hard the job really was. “I once tried to read a chapter out of a legal textbook and almost passed out,” the user wrote.

Not every reaction was a cheer. Some social media users criticized authorities for not giving visually impaired students enough support. One user called for more Braille reading material and audio sources in libraries and computer rooms.