Those Going to Hospital in Search Of Girls...

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I came upon Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s awkward and incomprehensible words just while I was preparing the Male Violence Monitoring report for June 2016.

“Going to the hospital not to get treatment but to search for girls” … Moreover; a friend has told him about that … One can’t help but wonder; what kind of friends does he have?

As far as I could observe in the video, Minister of Health; Recep Akdağ had been sitting with his head bent during this speech...we don’t know whether in shame or in exhaustion.

“Searching for a girl” must be an unilateral action. It is realized by means of the observations and the entrepreneurship capacity of the “male party”. In the past, it used to be performed by the mothers and aunts of the “male party” while socializing in public baths and weddings.

Now Turkey has made some progress and the health system has also improved which means that one now goes to hospitals to socialize and “search for girls” apparently. A woman partner is something you hand-pick like vegetables in a greengrocer anyway. And they are on stand-by, waiting in the hospital and men come and pick them.

I have tried to imagine, what it would look like and maybe as I have been preparing male violence reports for every month for the last five years, here is the picture I have in my mind when I hear “searching for girls [potential wifes] in the hospital”:

“Those in search of girls in the hospital” according to news in the media in 2016...

June 5

* 28 year-old FK leaving the open prison in Niğde on permission has sexually harassed 20 year-old H.A in her sleep who had been accompanying his grandmother in the hospital room. After she started screaming, the man has escaped who later has been taken into custody and arrested.   

June 12

* 60 year-old H.İ.G. accompanying his wife in a hospital in Zonguldak has tried to rape the 37 year-old patient N.Ç whom he did not know. The man taken into custody has been released pending trial. The hospital management has prohibited the man from entering the hospital.    

May 12

* A.İ., cleaning services manager of a hospital in Kocaeli has raped the 38 year-old sanitation worker S.B. in his car whom he had called for talking about work and injured her as she resisted. The woman who got pregnant upon the rape got an abortion. A.İ has continued harassing the woman further in the hospital and got her fired as well as threatened to harm her daughter. Investigation has been launched on the man upon her complaint. (This incident which has occurred five months ago has appeared in the press on May 12 only after the investigation has been launched.)

* A.U., a 46 year-old nurse in a hospital in Adana has physically harassed a woman patient whom he had brought to her room after an operation. The man has been arrested upon complaint of the woman.

April 19

* M.K.; sanitation worker in a hospital in İstanbul has harassed the 32 year-old patient N.P. in her room which he had entered secretly. Investigation has been launched into the man who had escaped upon the woman resisting.

April 14

* R.T., doctor in a hospital in Aydın has harassed the 18 year-old intern M.A. by triying to kiss her and sending sms. R.T. taken into custody upon the woman’s complaint has reportedly been released by the court on probation. It has been revealed that also earlier action had been taken against the doctor on charges of harassment. He has been discharged from his position.

March 6

* In Ağrı, the 37 year-old F.P. has tried to rape intern O.Y, his friend’s 17 year old daughter in the parking lot of the hospital. Despite complaint, no legal action has been taken against the man on grounds that no concrete evidence could be found. It has been reported that F.P. had continuously been harassing the woman for a while and had also threatened her upon her complaint. O.Y. has later been found dead in a hotel room on March 6, choked with a scarf and it has been claimed that she had committed suicide. F.P. has been arrested. (The rape incident which has occurred four months ago has appeared in the press only after O.Y.’s murder.)

February 24

* 41 year-old M.Ö who has introduced himself as a psychiatrist in a hospital in Adana has raped the 19 year-old Y.R. in the woods whom he had met in the hospital and became lovers with. He had forced the women whose pictures he had taken, to sexual intercourse several times. The man arrested upon complaint of the woman has been brought to trial demanding 27 years in prison. (This incident which has occurred last summer in 2015 has appeared in the press only on February 24.)

* M.S. who has introduced himself as a doctor in a hospital in Niğde has harassed the patient D.Y. under treatment. The man who escaped upon the woman screaming has been caught. (ÇT/DG).

*Translated by M. Deniz Güzgün

* Photograph: Anadolu Agency - Ankara / Murat Kaynak