JINHA

ISTANBUL – Turkish state officials have told women lawyers they need to change their underwear to suit elevated courthouse security levels after the "hostage operation" in an Istanbul courthouse several weeks ago, in the latest manifestation of the gendered logic of the Turkish police state.

Security restrictions targeting women continue in Istanbul's courthouses in the wake of the "hostage operation." In the operation, Turkish police launched a bloody attack on the two DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front) members who took a hostage in an Istanbul courthouse: the prosecutor in the case of teenager Berkin Elvan, slain by police. Police killed all three, including the prosecutor, although the hostage-takers' main demand was simply the release of the names of police responsible. Lawyers say the use of deadly force was unwarranted.

But even with the bodies buried, theevent has provided an occasion for Turkey's notorious police state to institute a tightening of control over courthouses in the city.

Thesecurity measureshave a gendered character that often reaches an absurd pitch. Last week, women lawyers held a protest against the guards' insistence on searching their clothes and opening their bags. Now, the courthouse prosecutor is telling women to change the kind of underwear they wear to suit the metal detectors.

Banu Güveren, co-chair of the Istanbul branch of the Lawyers for Freedom Association, reports that many women lawyers have missed hearings as a result of guards refusing to admit them—allegedly because their underwear is setting off metal detectors.When lawyer Yeşinil Yeşilyurt objected to the searches recently, guards violently kicked her out of the courthouse.

Leyla Han Tüzel, who was denied entry to the courthouse when she set off the metal detector, took it upon herself to speak to the man overseeing the security measures personally. Thestate's head prosecutor at the courthouse, in charge of security, told her that the problem was her underwear.

"When I said that they needed to adjust the sensitivity [of the metal detectors], he said, 'Well, then wear underwear that doesn't set it off. You can only go through if you don't set it off,'" she said.

(fk/cm)