Turkish professor begins serving time for headscarf charges, first imprisonment in such a case

A former professor at Ege University in Turkey’s Aegean city of İzmir will enter jail on Nov. 27 to serve his two-year sentence for preventing a female student with a headscarf from entering the faculty building, becoming the first individual to be sentenced according to the law.

Esat Rennan Pekünlü, a former professor of astrophysics at Ege University, is set to begin a two-year-one-month jail term for violating a female student’s right to education, after refusing to allow her to enter the university building for wearing a headscarf to class.

Before beginning to serve his time at the Foça Open Prison, Pekünlü will give his last lecture on the “universe and evolution” on Nov. 27 in a park in İzmir’s Bornova neighborhood. He will then be summoned to the prison.

The ban on wearing headscarves in universities was lifted during the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) term.

Most recently, a government decree changing the regulation on the dress code in public schools was published on Sept. 27 in the Official Gazette, allowing girls as young as 10 to attend classes wearing headscarves.