At Sakarya University, 41 students filed a complaint against a sociology lecturer for intervening a female student wearing shorts. The complained academic does not accept the accusations.
Forty-one students at Sakarya University filed a complaint to the Rector's Office against Prof. Dr. Ali Arslan, a theology-based lecturer in a sociology class. According to the petition, Prof. Arslan asked a female student wearing short shorts “Why are you dressed like that?” during the class on October 19. It was stated that some students left the class in response. It was also alleged that Arslan, who was said to have criticized female volleyball players for wearing short shorts, constantly tried to explain the topics he covered in his sociology course with religious concepts.
Collective complaint against academic by students
The Rectorate of Sakarya University did not make a statement regarding the petition dated October 25, 2023, in which students accused Prof. Arslan of both teaching extracurricular subjects and making sexist statements in his sociology class.
The petition points out that Arslan taught “Sociological Thinking and Writing” in the 2nd year of the Sociology Department, and last year he taught “General Psychology” in the 1st year. The petition claims that the academic “almost denies psychology and sociology, and constantly explains the teachings of sociology and psychology with hadiths and examples of religious worship.” In the petition, the students demanded that Arslan be banned from teaching in the sociology department and that an investigation be launched against him and sanctions be imposed.
The students also accuse Arslan of “making religious propaganda and trying to impose his worldview on them” in his lectures. “So much so that in these lectures he almost denies the science of sociology and psychology and alienates us from the department we are studying by saying ‘there used to be psychology or psychologists’,” the petition reads.
According to the students, Prof. Arslan asked a female student in the class who was wearing short shorts “why she was dressed like that”. Arslan allegedly said to the students, “Why do women wear short shorts in volleyball and men wear long shorts, all women wear short shorts as if they have to”. “Arslan described women wearing short shorts as an immoral behavior,” the students said.
According to the petition, Arslan, who was also teaching “General Psychology” in the first semester of the first grade last year, asked a female student to stand in front of the blackboard and demonstrate how to pray. “This systematic behavior and explanations of our teacher, which caused astonishment, and his attempt to base almost every subject he explained on a religion and hadiths made us not know what to do,” the petition said.
“He discriminates with political rhetoric”
The petition accuses academic Arslan of “discriminating with his political discourse and antagonizing different political views” and says: “Unfortunately, we cannot learn anything about sociology and psychology. We are in a situation where we cannot understand where and in which department we are studying.”.
“For these reasons, we respectfully request and demand that an investigation be opened against Prof. Dr. Ali Arslan, who constantly tries to impose his own religious understanding on us as his students, who turns different lifestyles into objects of hatred, who sows the seeds of enmity between students of different views with his political discourses, who marginalizes our female student friend by interfering with her dress, but who does not explain anything about sociology and psychology, and who does not teach anything about sociology and psychology, and who is not assigned to our sociology department courses.”.
Prof. Dr. Ali Arslan: Allegations are slander
Prof. Ali Arslan, who sent a written response to DW Turkish about the allegations, argued that the incident had nothing to do with the truth or a person and described the shorts incident as “pure slander”.
Stating that he did not experience an incident as mentioned in the petition, Arslan said, “I did not make a personal evaluation of anyone. It must have been an action taken with ulterior motives. Or it could have been a person who has not yet grasped sociological thinking interpreting the things spoken for himself, and I am not aware of the incident.”.
Arslan stated that he gave examples during the lecture, that the issue of short shorts was a slander and that he did not know who the person in question was, and added: “As a person who has traveled to 42 countries, it is my duty as a sociologist faculty member to broaden the perspectives of my students and to enable them to step out of the molds they are in.”.