that caused the incident and blaming the workers who constructed the track instead. Following the accident, it was uncovered that numerous senior officials from the TCDD had close relations to Yıldırım. The General Director of the TCDD at the time, Süleyman Karaman, was said to have hailed from the same village as Yıldırım's family, while Yıldırım was also said to have been directly related to another TCDD executive board member, Şükrü Kutlu. Another board member, Talat Aydın, was also alleged to be close to Yıldırım and concurrently served as a High Supervisory Board member at the Office of the Prime Minister. Accusations of sex segregation A photograph of Yıldırım's veiled wife, Semiha Yıldırım, eating alone and sitting separately from him during a business lunch went viral and produced an outcry in Turkey in 2005, many criticising him with charges of sexism. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) claimed that it was an attempt by the Islamist-orientated AKP to construct a new social order, while numerous other non-governmental associations, universities and newspapers accused the Minister of supporting sex segregation. A statement released by Yıldırım following the outcry claimed that Semiha Yıldırım had sat alone at her own will. While attending the annual ball of his alma mater Istanbul Technical University (İTU) in 2013, Yıldırım explained that he had made his university choices with difficulty but claimed that he did not apply for Boğaziçi University because he saw 'young men and women sitting together in the university garden' and that this would result in him 'going down the wrong path'. The comments were met with derision by Boğaziçi students, who claimed that the comments were a product of 'authoritarian conservatism' and released a joint statement claiming that Yıldırım 'should not fret, since he has already gone down the wrong path'. Personal and family finances Yıldırım's personal and family finances have continuously been criticised by the political opposition. In March 2014, Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy leader Sezgin Tanrıkulu brought forward allegations that Yıldırım's son owned 30 ships, with both Yıldırım and his son being partial owners of numerous shipping companies around the world, some of which were also owned by businessmen that had been accused of corruption alongside Yıldırım during the 2013 corruption scandal. Allegations regarding Yıldırım's son first emerged in 2003, when he allegedly obtained a loan from a shipping firm named Santour that had been leased a ferryboat by Yıldırım