ANKARA – Prisoner Zelal Bilgin, held at Sincan Women’s Closed Prison, reported that prisoners are being denied access to healthcare, stating, “We are not taken to the hospital under the pretext that the doctor is on leave.”
In a letter sent through her lawyers, the Free Women’s Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) member described on-going human rights violations faced by women prisoners, particularly the obstruction of medical care. “I was only taken for a brain MRI after a year and a half,” Zelal Bilgin said.
Prisoner Zelal Bilgin explained that prison authorities deliberately schedule hospital appointments on the same days as open family visits: “They also make multiple hospital appointments on the same day, so we cannot attend all of them and lose our right to treatment. They decide which appointment we go to, regardless of urgency. Since we live far from our families and don’t know appointment dates in advance, we often choose to see our families, and our diagnoses are delayed.”
FORCED HANDCUFFED EXAMINATIONS
Zelal Bilgin stated that the practice of handcuffed medical examinations continues, noting that prisoners are held in transport vans all day while handcuffed: “Even though our hands are cuffed and we are surrounded by gendarmes, they try to grip our arms tightly and insist on examining us with handcuffs. Many doctors say, ‘It doesn’t matter to me,’ but the gendarmerie pressures them not to remove the cuffs. At Etlik City Hospital, most doctors insist on handcuffed exams, and this practice has even spread to X-ray technicians. While they remove small metal items like earrings or watches for reflection, they don’t remove 500-gram metal handcuffs.”
‘NOT TAKEN TO HOSPITAL BECAUSE THE DOCTOR IS ON LEAVE’
Zelal Bilgin said that another prisoner, Nuriye Adet, is being denied dental treatment. She added: “Nuriye has no teeth left, and her treatment will take about two years, but it keeps being delayed because she isn’t taken to her appointments. She can’t chew food, which causes serious digestive problems. Throughout the summer, she wasn’t taken to the hospital, with the excuse that the doctor was on leave. On September 24, a doctor told the guards that Nuriye should come weekly, but she still isn’t being brought.”
‘THEY NEVER MISS A CHANCE TO TORTURE US’
Zelal Bilgin also described how her own dental treatment was obstructed: “On the 17th, despite the doctor saying ‘She must be brought urgently,’ I wasn’t taken because there were no gendarmes. On the 24th, the gendarme said, ‘I’ll only take two people,’ and despite my pain, my dental appointment was canceled, and they sent me for an MRI instead. I’ve been taking painkillers constantly, which now causes severe stomach pain. Because we are prisoners, our suffering doesn’t matter. Every department takes any opportunity to inflict more pain.”
MA / Sema Bingol