Turkish scholar cleared of hate charges. Her crime? Claiming priestesses wore head scarves thousands of years before Islam.
A court on Wednesday tried and immediately
acquitted a 92-year-old archaeologist for claiming in a book that Islamic-style
head scarves were first worn more than 5,000 years ago by priestesses initiating
young men into sex.
92-yr-old academic thanks supporters after victory
A court on Wednesday tried and immediately acquitted a 92-year-old archaeologist for claiming in a book that Islamic-style head scarves were first worn more than 5,000 years ago by priestesses initiating young men into sex.
The case is one of dozens brought against writers and academics for expressing opinions — and again raises questions about whether Turkey is ready to embrace European values on freedom of expression.
In a trial that lasted less than an hour, the court in Istanbul acquitted Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, an expert on the Sumerian civilization of Mesopotomia of around third millennium B.C., and her publisher of charges of insulting religious feelings. The panel of three judges ruled that Cig’s actions did not constitute a crime.
The diminutive, staunchly pro-secular former academic, who was born in 1914 — the waning years of the Ottoman Empire and the start of World War I — was the latest person to go on trial in Turkey for expressing her views, despite intense European Union pressure on the country to expand freedom of expression.
She joins a long list of writers, journalists and academics who have been prosecuted, including this year’s Nobel prize-winner, Orhan Pamuk, and novelist Elif Shafak, although Cig was prosecuted on different charges to the other two authors.
Charges of insulting Turkishness against Pamuk were dropped over a technicality earlier this year, and Shafak was acquitted.
Those two were tried under Turkey’s now infamous Article 301, which sets out punishment for insulting the Turkish Republic, its officials or “Turkishness.” Cig was accused of inciting hatred by insulting people based on their religion.
Good thing we don’t ever have to worry about the good old United States ever passing laws like these. Right? Uh…Right?
Posted: Thu - November 2, 2006 at 06:31 AM