No Male Doctor Allowed
Short Stories from Türkiye 🇹🇷 — Story #2
In the heart of Istanbul, the bustling city of diversity, lies many Academic Medical Centers. In one of those is Prof. Dr. Zeynep, a distinguished female professor in the field of internal medicine.
Prof. Dr. Zeynep trains a fresh batch of interns with diligence every year. Among her interns this summer was a kind young man named Emir, eager to make a mark in this hospital.
One scorching afternoon, a woman wearing a traditional hijab arrived at the hospital. She clutched her side in pain and waited by Prof. Dr. Zeynep’s room, having been squeezed into the schedule by the doctor’s assistant.
When she entered the room, Prof. Dr. Zeynep looked over the woman’s charts and prepared to perform a routine kidney examination.
“Please step over to the right and get ready for your examination,” Prof. Dr. Zeynep stated, pointing at the examination bed.
The patient’s eyes darted toward Emir, the young intern, her expression hardening.
She asked, “Will he be here?”
Prof. Dr. Zeynep glanced at her over the top of her glasses, “Of course, this is my intern. Is there a problem?”
“I thought no male doctors were allowed,” the patient declared, her voice carrying a blend of discomfort and suspicion.
Prof. Dr. Zeynep, with no time to waste and many patients waiting by the door, was running out of patience. “Excuse me? Who told you that?”
“The Hacı* by the mosque,” the patient replied, her gaze unwavering.
*Hacı in Turkish means a pilgrim.
A hint of confusion crossed Dr. Zeynep’s face. “Does this Hacı own the hospital? How does he determine what’s allowed or not?”
The woman fell silent, not sure if the Hacı was even real in the first place.
Dr. Zeynep tried to explain, “This is not a gynecologist. I’m simply going to take a look at your belly.”
But the patient was not having it. She demanded the male intern leave, staring at Prof. Dr. Zeynep without even blinking.
“I don’t want him here. He must leave!”
Emir, the kind intern, shifted uncomfortably, wanting to leave.
Prof. Dr. Zeynep took a deep breath and calmly said, “This is my student, and he has every right to learn through practical experience. In fact, that’s why he’s here, under my supervision.”
“I don’t care. I won’t let you examine me in his presence.” The patient’s voice was getting louder.
Prof. Dr. Zeynep tried to explain once again, “I’m just going to examine your lower back, where you feel the pain.”
The patient grumpily crossed her arms and stared down at Prof. Dr. Zeynep, who ran out of patience and stood up.
“This is an Academic Medical Center, which means students and graduates are here to learn through practice. I won’t allow gender discrimination under my supervision, particularly in a medical setting. I don’t have time for this debate. You know where the door is.”
The patient got up and left, making way for other patients to enter and be examined by Prof. Dr. Zeynep.
Emir was disheartened by the patient’s discrimination, but Prof. Dr. Zeynep reassured him that he deserved the education he had come for.
I want to take a minute to explain that Türkiye, like many nations, has conservative and liberal factions.
As someone who was born and raised in Istanbul, my observation is that Istanbul, once a liberal place, now has a growing population of immigrants from the conservative eastern villages. This started after the lifting of the headscarf ban.
Yes, the religious headscarves and hijab were banned in Türkiye once the secularization of the state was introduced in the Turkish Constitution of 1924.
The stories in this series are a blend of possible truth and fiction, inspired by things I’ve heard from friends and family in Türkiye 🇹🇷. While the core narrative may have real roots, the characters, locations, and details have been fictionalized due to the impossibility of fact-checking and asking for permission.
Thank you for reading this story. Stay tuned for the next short stories in this series and be sure to subscribe to get notified!
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