A court has sentenced a doctor who had told two patients not to wear headscarves to 10 months in prison. The sentence was later reduced to a fine. When Gamze Çakıcı, 20, and Hacer Kılınç, 24, visited the Yalıhüyük Health Center in April for a checkup, Dr. Erol Eren told the women: "Be contemporary. Don't come here with those clothes."
Çakıcı, who filed a lawsuit against Eren, won the case after a six-month trial. The 10-month prison sentence given to the doctor was converted into a YTL 10,500 fine. Recalling the event, Çakıcı said: "I had anemia, and I went to Dr. Eren's office with my friend. He told us that we cannot enter the building with our attire. He then showed us his daughter's picture, saying that she is a contemporary person with contemporary attire. He prescribed some medicine for me, and he kept on criticizing us. He also told the nurse that he will not forget our faces. We almost burst into tears."…(http://www.todayszaman.com, 02 December 2008)
Comment: At last, the women in Turkey what they deserved. We agree with the MP from a secular party had brought the incident before Parliament and said there should be no discrimination against patients, calling the practice unethical and not acceptable. "In the commonly shared public sphere, our citizens, of course, will make their choices on how to dress, to wear a headscarf or not. No doubt about this. We have a consensus in society regarding that issue. Those who provide public services cannot interfere in this and cannot engage in discriminatory practices," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment