Research in fields such as sociology and even business shows that some occupations are traditionally divided (meaning for a long time) into "male" or "female". For example, public relations, nursing or teaching are generally perceived as women's work. Similarly, stock market expertise, engineering, and perhaps the continuation of construction work have always been seen as male jobs. Moreover, it is even thought that if a woman is employed in occupations that are traditionally considered to be men's work, that occupation also weakens her authority compared to men.
According to some researches, let's say that the official who is authorized to give credit in a bank has always been male and those who make credit transactions with a female employee for the first time begin to believe that this duty is less valuable. In fact, women have started to work in jobs that are traditionally called "men's work" in our country. For this reason, from time to time, we come across some magazine news such as "female taxi/bus driver", "female auto/tire mechanic" or "female construction worker".
Although the number of women is increasing day by day, from forklift operators to train and tram conductors, information processors and carpenters are still mostly men. Although the participation of women in business life has increased in our country, the disadvantages of being a woman are also added to their clothes.
Perhaps the weakest link in Turkey's modernization project was clothing. Because it was imposed by force, it was inevitable that it would encounter resistance. The country had been preoccupied with such a small issue for many years and its energy was wasted in unnecessary discussions.
The TV series titled Bir Başkadır (Berkun Oya, 2020), which was broadcast on a digital platform two years ago, attracted a lot of attention in our country. The reason for this interest was probably that it revealed how far and divergent the different sections of the country are from each other. We have seen once again on the occasion of this series that the people who are artificially knitted and alienated from each other behind the walls have no intention of stepping out of their comfort zone. Each character represented a different traditional social role in this series where everyone found something of themselves.
Since the fiction could have taken place in any city or town in Turkey, they were the types we encountered everywhere and at any time. Maybe that's why it strengthened the belief that we are the "mosaic" that we have been told all along. However, mosaic is a solid and dull structure. The reason why it is not mentioned much these days may be due to the fact that the social and cultural structure of our country is more fluid and open to change. As everything changes, society also changes.
I think it would be useful to remind a psychiatrist named Peri, one of the characters in the TV series Bir Başkadır, because of a statement that was on the agenda on social media at the weekend. Peri in the series works as a psychiatrist and also a psychotherapist in a public hospital. She clearly shows how foreign she is to the clients who come to her with the language, gestures and mimics she uses in the therapies she tries to apply.
She is as if she did not grow up in Turkey, as if she had never been in this society and she sees herself as superior to them because she is not like them. But when he met Meryem, the main character of the series, this unfamiliar truth revealed her fragility.
In an interview with Armağan Çağlayan on a YouTube channel, Prof. Dr. Üstün Dökmen made statements such as "It is against professional ethics to have a headscarved psychologist, a headscarved psychiatrist, a headscarved pedagogical counselor and a guide."
In order not to take these words out of context, he said in the same interview that they could become architects, civil engineers, pharmacists and teachers because the Ministry of National Education gave permission. He also stated that he would not express his opinion on what happened to judges and prosecutors, as he did not "are in his field of expertise". But “The professional ethics in the world is that our people don't know. Psychologist, psychiatrist, PDR specialist cannot use religious, political, team, national symbols, and tried to balance in his own way, as he could not be a counselor with a cross necklace or a miniskirt.
This look is probably due to the fact that he does not know the world. Even though some of our people don't know, and even if Üstün Hodja does not go and see with their own eyes, people from almost every religion and culture successfully perform their professions in every field of medicine in Western countries that receive immigrants from all over the world. In the Netherlands or Canada, people are more interested in the expertise of the people they consult, regardless of their religion or ethnicity.
Like the Peri character in the TV series Bir Başkadır, Üstün Hodja should be aware of his own rigidity, anger, foreignness, and more importantly, his distance from them. In order to get rid of his prejudices, he should apply psychotherapy to himself.
While practicing his profession, he should try to prevent the prejudices about their clothes from getting in the way of his profession by maintaining the necessary "scientific distance" with his clients. It does not suit a scientist like Üstün Hodja, who has reached a respected position in his profession, to see his foreignness as a "superiority" to his own people, like the fairy character. Similar to the one in the series, the opposite, namely, how to ethically treat a veiled client may even be a more important issue for this country.
Such comments are nothing but a waste of energy. Fortunately, the number of people who think like Üstün Hodja is decreasing day by day and the society is trying to understand each other.