Two 100-Year-Old Turkish Women Reveal Secret to Long Life

Aisha Gul Shahin and  Asia Sutlu. Asharq Al-Awsat AR.
Aisha Gul Shahin and Asia Sutlu. Asharq Al-Awsat AR.
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Two 100-Year-Old Turkish Women Reveal Secret to Long Life

Aisha Gul Shahin and  Asia Sutlu. Asharq Al-Awsat AR.
Aisha Gul Shahin and Asia Sutlu. Asharq Al-Awsat AR.

Two 100-year-old Turkish women have confirmed that the way to a long life without much trouble is to rely on natural food that protects humans against doctors and treatments.

Aisha Gul Shahin, 104, lives in the southern area of Kilis, on the borders with Syria. She was born on July 1, 1913, and got married at a young age. She has 3 children, 30 grandchildren, who also have children. Shahin has made headlines, as she lives in good health, and says she spent most of her life in farming and raising livestock, and has only visited the doctor twice in her life.

She added: "Throughout my life, I consumed large amounts of molasses, natural buttermilk, milk, eggs, vegetables and fresh fruit."

She noted that she is still able to respond to her own needs without others’ help, and that she don’t feel any fatigue. Until the last four years, she woke up early in the morning and made her own bread, but she has not been able to move much lately.

Gul Shahin said she depended on natural food all along her life, and added: "I want to go out and walk around the village and talk to people as I used to do in the past."

The old woman from Kilis advises her children and grandchildren to consume large quantities of molasses and grapes. Her son Mohammed Shahin, 70, says he used to go regularly to the mountain with his mother to work before her health deteriorated.

On the other hand, the oldest Turkish woman, Asia Sutlu, who reached her 119th year, dreamed of being listed in the Guinness Records as the eldest woman in the world.

Sutlu, who lives in Turkey's southeast province of Bitlis, has attracted the Turkish and foreign media after celebrating her 118th birthday in April. Her identity card says she was born on April 17, 1899.

Sutlu says the secret to her long life is the consumption of organic food which she cultivates in her land; the old woman who only eats food from her village says: "We have always eaten the food we make with our own hands, such as yoghurt, “Kishk” made of lamb, chicken and wheat, and we have drunk Ayran (a drink made of milk and water) and medicinal herbs that we collect from the mountains ... there is no more healthy food these days."

The Ministry for Women and Family in Turkey celebrated Sutlu’s birthday on May 23, when a delegate from the Ministry visited her village in the Hizan district of Bitlis with a cake.

Sutlu recalls the days she used to go to the mountain to feed and milk cows, and carry firewood to her village. She lost her husband 46 years ago at the age of 73.

The old woman from Bitlis has 69 grandchildren and lives with her daughter-in-law. The municipality is responsible for providing her needs and her health care.

No international body has yet taken action to classify Sutlu as the oldest in the world, but the woman aims to hold the title before her death and to be listed in the Guinness Records.

The birth date featured on her identity card would make her the oldest person in the world, older than Emma Murano, who was announced the oldest person in the world before her death in Italy last April at the age of 117, and was the last person in the world born in the nineteenth century.

Sutlu was also born before Jamaican Violet Brown, born on March 10, 1900, now classified as the world's oldest person by the Gerontology Research Group, which documents people's ages through reliable birth documents.



Justice at Stake as Generative AI Enters the Courtroom

Generative artificial intelligence has been used in the US legal system by judges performing research, lawyers filing appeals and parties involved in cases who wanted help expressing themselves in court. Jefferson Siegel / POOL/AFP
Generative artificial intelligence has been used in the US legal system by judges performing research, lawyers filing appeals and parties involved in cases who wanted help expressing themselves in court. Jefferson Siegel / POOL/AFP
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Justice at Stake as Generative AI Enters the Courtroom

Generative artificial intelligence has been used in the US legal system by judges performing research, lawyers filing appeals and parties involved in cases who wanted help expressing themselves in court. Jefferson Siegel / POOL/AFP
Generative artificial intelligence has been used in the US legal system by judges performing research, lawyers filing appeals and parties involved in cases who wanted help expressing themselves in court. Jefferson Siegel / POOL/AFP

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is making its way into courts despite early stumbles, raising questions about how it will influence the legal system and justice itself.

Judges use the technology for research, lawyers utilize it for appeals and parties involved in cases have relied on GenAI to help express themselves in court.

"It's probably used more than people expect," said Daniel Linna, a professor at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, about GenAI in the US legal system.

"Judges don't necessarily raise their hand and talk about this to a whole room of judges, but I have people who come to me afterward and say they are experimenting with it”.

In one prominent instance, GenAI enabled murder victim Chris Pelkey to address an Arizona courtroom -- in the form of a video avatar -- at the sentencing of the man convicted of shooting him dead in 2021 during a clash between motorists.

"I believe in forgiveness," said a digital proxy of Pelkey created by his sister, Stacey Wales.

The judge voiced appreciation for the avatar, saying it seemed authentic.

"I knew it would be powerful," Wales told , "that that it would humanize Chris in the eyes of the judge."

The AI testimony, a first of its kind, ended the sentencing hearing at which Wales and other members of the slain man's family spoke about the impact of the loss.

Since the hearing, examples of GenAI being used in US legal cases have multiplied.

"It is a helpful tool and it is time-saving, as long as the accuracy is confirmed," said attorney Stephen Schwartz, who practices in the northeastern state of Maine.

"Overall, it's a positive development in jurisprudence."

Schwartz described using ChatGPT as well as GenAI legal assistants, such as LexisNexis Protege and CoCounsel from Thomson Reuters, for researching case law and other tasks.

"You can't completely rely on it," Schwartz cautioned, recommending that cases proffered by GenAI be read to ensure accuracy.

"We are all aware of a horror story where AI comes up with mixed-up case things."

The technology has been the culprit behind false legal citations, far-fetched case precedents, and flat-out fabrications.

In early May, a federal judge in Los Angeles imposed $31,100 in fines and damages on two law firms for an error-riddled petition drafted with the help of GenAI, blasting it as a "collective debacle."

The tech is also being relied on by some who skip lawyers and represent themselves in court, often causing legal errors.

And as GenAI makes it easier and cheaper to draft legal complaints, courts already overburdened by caseloads could see them climb higher, said Shay Cleary of the National Center for State Courts.

"Courts need to be prepared to handle that," Cleary said.

Transformation

Law professor Linna sees the potential for GenAI to be part of the solution though, giving more people the ability to seek justice in courts made more efficient.

"We have a huge number of people who don't have access to legal services," Linna said.

"These tools can be transformative; of course we need to be thoughtful about how we integrate them."

Federal judges in the US capitol have written decisions noting their use of ChatGPT in laying out their opinions.

"Judges need to be technologically up-to-date and trained in AI," Linna said.

GenAI assistants already have the potential to influence the outcome of cases the same way a human law clerk might, reasoned the professor.

Facts or case law pointed out by GenAI might sway a judge's decision, and could be different than what a legal clerk would have come up with.

But if GenAI lives up to its potential and excels at finding the best information for judges to consider, that could make for well-grounded rulings less likely to be overturned on appeal, according to Linna.