Shut up and see a doctor, pro-gov’t columnist advises sexually harassed woman

ISTANBUL

A pro-government pundit in Turkey has drawn the ire of social media users by advising sexually harassed women to “shut up and see a doctor.”

Sevda Türküsev, a columnist for daily Yeni Şafak, participated in the social media campaign #sendeanlat (you tell your story too) on Feb. 16 with a controversial tweet.

“Unfortunately, I have been proven right: The women who tell stories about how they were sexually harassed should shut up and see a doctor. Life is not a TV drama,” she tweeted.

Among those who shared their personal stories with the hashtag #sendeanlat was Beren Saat, a Turkish actress and celebrity. The campaign was in response to the brutal murder of Özgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old woman from the southern province of Mersin.

Cemile Bayraktar, another Yeni Şafak columnist, took a similar stance, telling the protesters to “shut up” and stressed that “similar incidents happen in America, too.”

Pop singer Nihat Doğan, on the other hand, apologized on Feb. 16 after a tweet in which he mentioned “mini-skirt-wearing deviants who have been turned into immoral people by the secularist system” triggered an avalanche of reactions.

Doğan had earlier claimed that he was targeted on social media because of his support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.