Oct 19, 2015

Sare Davutoglu, the wife of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, is a gynecologist known for her conservative approach to medicine. A graduate of Istanbul University’s medical faculty, she worked at a clinic at the Islamic University of Malaysia in the 1990s. Interviews she gave during that period, her argument that Islam’s edicts on health could be used in modern medicine and her alleged support of the fatwa institution made headlines in the Turkish media after she became the first lady last year. The issue was important, for many people in rural Turkey still resort to faith healers and exorcists instead of doctors. Ridding the health sector of faith healers and transforming the people’s mentalities is actually the history in a nutshell of the struggle doctors have in Turkey. Hence, Sare Davutoglu’s views on Islamic medicine were met with concern and criticism.

And while her views were thus far judged on the basis of interviews or speculation, they boiled down to a concrete initiative in October. An annual congress on prophetic medicine, which used to convene in the form of small gathering, was this year held under Sare Davutoglu’s patronage and for the first time hosted by a university — the Cukurova University in the southern city of Adana. Local governor’s offices, public hospitals, education departments and mufti’s offices were officially mobilized to boost participation to the event.

More than 160 speakers took part in the four-day prophetic medicine congress, which opened on Oct. 7. Only a handful of physicians attended the event, while the majority of participants were members of theology faculties and masters of the Quran with no academic background.

The presentations at congress, which opened with recitation of Quranic verses, covered issues such as healing concepts in the Quran and the hadiths, the Prophet Muhammad’s treatment practices and recommendations (cauterization, wet cupping, etc.), substance abuse, Islamic faith and immunology, the effects of worship on human health, circumcision, organ donation and mental health through prayer.

Recep Cigdem from Harran University’s theology faculty made one of the most attention-grabbing presentations, titled “Islam’s approach to sexual life.” The presentation, made available to Al-Monitor, addressed anal and oral sex as well as sadism and masochism, and included the following lines: “The hadith [says] ‘He who has an anal intercourse with his wife is accursed.’ Allah does not look [approvingly] to those who approach men or women from the anus. Though different views exist on this issue, they are not supported by the verse. … With regard to oral sex, some Islamic scholars describe it as permissible, while others as something objectionable. There is no religious text that openly describes it as something prohibited. … Sadism and masochism are inappropriate. … Stimulating drugs are not advisable. … Sexual plastic surgery (breast enlargement, penis enlargement) is not advisable unless it is medically necessary. … There is no religious text banning masturbation. In the face of adultery and similar risks, masturbation is imperative and necessary.”