PEACEFUL RALLIES IN Turkey were met with a violent response from authorities over the past week, leading to civil unrest, strike actions and mass demonstrations.

A Reuters photo of a policeman spraying a lady in a red dress with teargas has become a symbol of anti-government protesters. The newswire explains:

In her red cotton summer dress, necklace and white bag slung over her shoulder she might have been floating across the lawn at a garden party; but before her crouches a masked policeman firing teargas spray that sends her long hair billowing upwards.

Endlessly shared on social media and replicated as a cartoon on posters and stickers, the image of the woman in red has become the leitmotif for female protesters during days of violent anti-government demonstrations in Istanbul.

‘The Lady in Red’ is not the first enduring image of civil unrest over the past three years. As recessions took hold of the US and Europe and citizens became angry at family dynasties and dictatorships, people took to the streets to shout their dissatisfaction.

The ease in which images, videos and news can be disseminated played no small part in the contagious nature of the unrest.

Athens was the first city beset by anti-austerity marches in 2010 and, unlike the so-called Arab Spring, it took some time for protests to escalate in other European cities.

The death of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit seller who set himself alight in December 2011, sparked the Arab revolution.

And the ousting of numerous Arab leaders since then has inspired action elsewhere. Civilians in democracies across Europe and the Americas have started movements against austerity and other government policies. Turkey is just the next in what is becoming a long list.

Here are 22 of the most powerful images we have seen over the past three years.