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."

Her father, Yusuf Çakıcı, presented a formal complaint to the prosecutor's office. After making its way through a chain of bureaucracy, the complaint ended up in court, where the prosecutor called for a one-year prison sentence for Eren. The physician's good standing with the court led to a lower sentence, which was subsequently reduced to a fine.

Atilla Kart, a Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy, 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.




TODAYSZAMAN