Doctor gets dismissed from his duties over sexist remarks
ISTANBUL
A doctor who was serving as a “deputy chief physician” at a hospital in the Turkish capital Ankara has been dismissed from his duties after a massive social media outrage over his sexist remarks heard in a video he posted on one of his accounts.
The doctor’s contract, whose investigation was initiated by the Health Ministry Inspection Board, was terminated.
Dr. Ali Edizer, working for a hospital affiliated to the University of Health Sciences, had expressed his “discomfort” against the Turkish Civil Code and his “criticism” of gender equality in a video he posted on his social media account.
Stating that he was fighting against the Civil Code, Edizer called on men to get second wives.
The code, taken as a model from Switzerland and adopted in 1926, had provided equal rights for women both within the family and as individuals by completely changing the legal status of women.
Criticizing a morning program broadcast on a private channel, Edizer described the free will of the woman as immoral.
“The beginning of the road that leads us to Esra Erol [host of the morning show] is the adoption of the Swiss Civil Code. Freedom and civilization were given to women, if you ask. Formal monogamy, in practice, adultery and prostitution [were given],” he said in the video.
“Western immorality from force to action,” he described.
Edizer’s remarks have stirred a fierce debate across Turkey and sparked outrage on social media as critics claimed that they are sexist, discriminatory and deepen inequality between genders.
Accusations against the leaders of opposition parties and hate speech that discriminate in terms of ethnic and religious aspects were also encountered in the posts that the doctor published on his social media accounts.
