IAA Appeal for M.Cig..
October 31, 2006
The International Association for Assyriology (IAA)
An Appeal for Dismissal of Charges Against Muazzez Ilmiye Cig
We, the undersigned members of the International Association for Assyriology and other colleagues with interest in the Ancient Near East are deeply alarmed by news reports that Muazzez Ilmiye Cig is to defend herself in court against charges of inciting religious hatred. She is accused of belittling Muslim practices when she disclosed information on the use of headdresses and scarves by Sumerian women millennia ago.
A veteran researcher who, throughout a long career, has contributed to the recovery of the ancient past, Dr. Cig is a model representative of Turkish contribution to scholarship. She has been tireless in propagating the knowledge acquired from ancient documents. The specific issue she raises about the significance of the use of scarves in antiquity cannot have reference to religiously sanctioned practices in our own days. It should be a subject for discussion among historians of past cultures rather than of clerics, lawyers, and judges.
We appeal to Turkish officials with influence on this matter to work for dismissal of all charges against Professor Muazzez Ilmiye Cig.
Jack M. Sasson, President
Wilfred H. van Soldt, Secretary
If you want to sign this appeal, please send an email to Wilfred van Soldt by Monday November 6. Give your name, any relevant title, and the institution to which you belong
November 02,2006
The International Association for Assyriology (IAA)
AN APPEAL FOR DISMISSAL OF CHARGES AGAINST MUAZZEZ ILMIYE CIG
From the BBC came this encouraging message:
"A court in the Turkish city of
Archaeologist Muazzez Ilmiye Cig was prosecuted over a book in which she linked the wearing of headscarves with ancient Sumerian sexual rites. The judge ruled at the first hearing of her trial that her actions did not constitute a crime. Dr Cig's publisher was also cleared in a trial lasting less than half an hour. The archaeologist was applauded by supporters as she left the courtroom"
The acquittal of all charges against Muazzez Ilmiye Çig and Ismet Ogutucu, her publisher, is very gratifying.
The International Association for Assyriology has received almost 150 responses to its appeal and we are heartened by it. The appeal is now suspended and we hope that there will be no future need for any similar call on behalf of intellectual rights and plea for legal prudence.
Jack M. Sasson,
Wilfred H. van Soldt,
Jeanette C. Fincke,
Kalıcı Bağlantı
M.Cig is acquitted in court..
Turkish scholar acquitted of inciting religious hatred
02/11/2006
A 92-year-old scholar, the latest of a number of Turkish intellectuals to face trial for expressing their opinions, was acquitted by an Istanbul court on Wednesday.
(The New York Times, The Scotsman - 02/11/06; AP, Reuters, AFP, BBC, CNN, Euronews, International Herald Tribune, Hurriyet, Jurist, International Association for Assyriology - 01/11/06)
|
|
It took an Istanbul court only about half-an-hour on Wednesday (November 1st) to acquit a 92-year-old historian, tried on charges of insulting Muslim women and inciting religious hatred.
The accusations against Muazzez Ilmiye Cig stemmed from a book the retired expert on Sumerian civilisation wrote last year. The veteran researcher claimed that the headscarf was first used about 5,000 years ago by Sumerian priestesses initiating young men into sex. They wore the veil to distinguish themselves from other priestesses in the temple, according to the author.
Offended by Cig's assertion, Izmir-based lawyer Yusuf Akin filed a complaint against her. Charges of "insulting a certain group of people on the basis of religion" were then brought against the scholar and her publisher, Ismet Ogutcu.
"I am a person of the Ataturk revolution, and as a Turkish woman I try to bring people together," Cig told the court during the first trial hearing on the case Wednesday, referring to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic. "I'm not someone who is trying to incite hatred."
Shortly afterwards the three-judge panel ruled that Cig's statements did not constitute a crime and the charges were dropped. Had they been convicted, both Cig and her publisher faced up to 18 months in prison.
Headscarves are common in predominantly Muslim, but secular, Turkey. However, they are banned from many public places, including government offices and universities.
Cig, who retired more than 30 years ago and is the author of 13 books, is the latest of many Turkish intellectuals to have been brought to trial over their views, or because of remarks they have made. Others include Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and novelist Elif Shafak.
The latest trial opened shortly before the European Commission is due to release a critical report on Turkey's progress towards EU accession on November 8th. The Cig case reportedly has been criticised by Brussels.
It also drew fire from the International Association for Assyriology (IAA). "A veteran researcher who, throughout a long career, has contributed to the recovery of the ancient past, Dr. Cig is a model representative of Turkish contribution to scholarship," the IAA said in a statement on Tuesday, appealing for the dismissal of the charges.
Kalıcı BağlantıM. Cig is acquitted - USA Today
COURT ACQUITS TURKISH ARCHAELOGIST
CHARGED FOR HER VIEWS ON HEAD SCARVES
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — 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.
Cig faced 1 1/2 years in prison had she been convicted.
The trial came a week before a EU report assessing Turkey's progress toward membership, which is expected to chide the country for slipping in its reform program and not acting to change laws that have been used to curb freedoms — in violation of EU human rights standards.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government is resisting change, arguing that no one so far has ended up in prison for expressing opinions despite the trials.
Critics say the trials and threat of prosecution act as a deterrent to free speech and are unacceptable.
Cig's trial was initiated by an Islamic-oriented lawyer who was offended by claims made in her recently published political work, "My Reactions as a Citizen," in which she says that the earliest examples of head scarves date back to Sumerian times, when veils were worn by priestesses who engaged in sex to distinguish themselves from other priestesses.
Cig rejected the charge in court saying: "I am a woman of science. ... I never insulted anyone," private NTV television reported. Twenty-five lawyers crammed into the small courtroom to defend her.
In what some said was a move to avoid endangering Turkey's EU bid, the prosecution supported dropping the charge, saying Cig's actions had not in any way "endangered public safety." It is not unusual for the prosecution to drop or change charges in the course of a trial.
The judges then acquitted Cig and publisher Ismet Ogutucu of the Kaynak publishing house.
Secular groups who turned out to the trial in a show of support celebrated the acquittal, with cheers and applause.
"Live for a thousand years," one supporter cheered, according to an Anatolia news agency report. The former academic, who retired in 1972 and has written 13 books, responded by asking supporters to continue promoting secularism when she is gone.
Cig gained public attention earlier this year when she wrote to Emine Erdogan, asking the Turkish first lady to remove her head scarf and set an example to women in this predominantly Muslim and secular country. Turkey has strict secular laws and regulations that bar head scarves in schools and in public offices.
An increasing number of women however are veiling themselves in a show of religious piety to the dismay of secularists who view the head scarf as a symbol of political Islam and of female oppression.
Erdogan, whose party has roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, has made no secret of his desire to relax the laws on head scarves. Cautious of sensitivities of pro-secular circles, including the powerful military, however, he has said that he would wait until the time was right.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
Kalıcı Bağlantı
M.Cig in court..
Academic faces trial over headscarf article
From correspondents in Istanbul, Turkey
October 19, 2006 02:16am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
AN eminent 92-year-old Turkish archaeologist is to go on trial for inciting religious hatred because she angered Islamist circles with a scientific paper saying that the use of headscarves by women dated back to pre-Islamic sexual rites.
Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, who devoted her career to studying the Sumerians, the first known urban civilisation dating from the 4th millennium BC, is to appear in court on November 1 in Istanbul, her editor Ismet Ogutucu said.
In a book published last year, Cig said the headscarf - a controversial issue in Turkey - was first worn by Sumerian priestesses initiating young people into sex, but without prostituting themselves.
A lawyer from the western city of Izmir took offence and filed a complaint against Cig, resulting in a prosecutor charging both her and her publisher with “inciting hatred based on religious differences”.
If convicted, the two risk up to three years in jail.
Apart from her formidable academic career, Cig is a staunch defender of mainly Muslim Turkey's strictly secular political system.
She recently wrote to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife Emine, calling on her to discard her Islamic headscarf and set an example to young people.
“She can wear whatever she likes at home, but as the wife of the prime minister, she cannot wear a cross or the headscarf,” Cig said in an interview published Monday in the popular daily Vatan.
The Islamic-style headscarf is viewed by secular Turks as a symbol of political Islam and is banned by law in public offices and universities.
The issue has polarised Turkish society, particularly since Mr Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party swept to power in 2002 with an end to the headscarf ban high on its list of electoral promises - one it has so far been unable to keep.
Kalıcı Bağlantı
