Turkey judge suspended after criticising length of lawyer’s skirt in court

‘Instead of looking at lawyers’ legs, look at the file in front of you!’ says one lawyer

A Turkish judge who criticised a female lawyer over the length of her skirt during a hearing has been suspended amid widespread outrage over his remarks.

The judge, Mehmet Yoylu, also allegedly demanded to take a picture of lawyer Tugce Cetin’s attire in his Istanbul courtroom, and wanted to refer her to the bar association for review, arguing that the skirt was higher than the regulated 15cm above her knees.

He was thwarted. Instead, the incident on Thursday prompted other lawyers in the courthouse, which deals with workplace and labour disputes, to stage a protest.

“Women are waiting for an apology from you,” they reportedly chanted.

“Not the skirt, the mind is short,” ran a headline in the mass-circulation daily Cumhuriyet.

“What kind of disgrace is this! Instead of looking at lawyers’ legs, look at the file in front of you!” lawyer Feyza Altun said in an Instagram post. “We won’t leave this country to religious zealots.”

Mr Yoylu’s suspension by the Board of Judges and Prosecutors is temporary, pending a formal review of his actions.

He has been subject to nationwide ridicule and scorn, inadvertently launching a hashtag, #etekboyu, which means skirt length. A caricature in the newspaper Yenicag showed a judge measuring the length of a female lawyer’s exposed legs, while the woman measured the size of his brain.

Lawyers have said Mr Yoylu has a history of bizarre and unprofessional behaviour.

Female lawyers in Turkey have long complained of discrimination and harassment while navigating the country’s legal and criminal justice system.

Newspaper Yenicag’s take on the incident

“We face sexism, but it’s usually hidden away,” Tugce Duygu Koksal, a criminal and human rights lawyer, told The Independent, adding that it was scarcely as public. “I can say that I have never tasted such sexism.”

She described hostile or harassing behaviour directed at her by court, police, and prison officials, and by male colleagues.

“You have to be much more attentive and prudent,” she said.

The incident highlights the polarisation between conservative and secular Turks. Such battles have been a staple of the country’s cultural conflicts for a century, becoming especially prevalent during the Muslim calendar month of Ramadan, a time of fasting for the pious.

Normally, the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan sides decisively with conservatives in Turkey’s culture wars. But with the crucial 23 June mayoral election rerun in relatively cosmopolitan Istanbul coming up, it has to tread a more cautious path.

“Our judicial system cannot allow anyone to be discriminated against based on their attire or lifestyle, or be exposed to arbitrary treatment,” Justice minister Abdulhamit Gul wrote on Twitter.

He called it “unacceptable” that a judge with Mr Yoylu’s experience would be “preoccupied with not the case in front of him, but instead the lawyer’s attire”.