Turkish Government Proposes Raped Women Marry Rapist for Rapists’ Acquittal
Author(s): Phoebe Davies-Owen and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Assorted In-Sights (In-Sight Publishing)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016/11/19
Turkey continues to invite criticism from the international community (Russia Today, 2016a). After it emerged that it’s government was putting forward a bill that would pardon rapists if they married their victims, the motion was brought to the Turkish Parliament for consideration today, as a way to skirt the legal complications with child marriage, which make up 33% of Turkish marriages (Russia Today, 2016b).
The AKP (Justice and Development party in power, who favour conservative ideology) have supported the policy, and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on Saturday moved to reassure opponents that the bill would not pardon rapists.
“The bill will certainly not bring amnesty to rapists…. This is a step taken to solve a problem in some parts of our country,” Bozdag told a NATO meeting in Istanbul (Channel News Asia, 2016). The proposal states that, in the case of child rape, if the act was committed without “force, threat, or any other restriction on consent,” and if the victim agrees to marry the aggressor, the sentence of the condemned shall be postponed (Al Jazeera, 2016). Does anyone else see troubles with this?
Indeed, it has been heavily criticised. For example, the opposition party said the proposal would “encourage forced marriages” and “legalize marriage to rapists,” but some in the women’s rights community in Turkey have gone so far as to claim that this movement in legislation would legalise and encourage the rape of minors (Hurriyet Daily, 2016).
On the same day, around 3,000 protesters turned up to the Kadikoy Square in Istanbul to show their contempt. A UN children’s fund spoke out about the bill as deeply concerning. It is criminal. This bill, if passed, will only put pressure on rape victims to spend their lives with to their rapists in order to avoid a scandal. That is, the doubt of a woman’s honour and virginity.
Child marriage, which is common in Turkey, is not defined as a criminal act – Yasar University law professor Mustafa Ruhan Erdem has said that Girls under 16 are allowed to marry in Turkey with Sharia Court permission.
According to Nuriye Kadan (İzmir Bar Association Central Executive Board Member and women’s rights advocate), there are 181,036 child brides in Turkey, and when speaking at a conference to tackle the matter of child marriage, made the claim that the number could actually be far higher than estimated because most child marriages are performed with only the presence of an Imam, not registered by authorities (Buchanan, 2016).
This makes sense. The number of listed child marriages, as a safe assumption, will be lower than the real number. Who would want to accurately detail the quantity of child marriages in their country?
And if so, what would be the temptation to misrepresent the number, individually, familially, or nationally? The Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages from 1962. It unequivocally states that “Marriage shall be entered “into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses” (Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, 1964). UNICEF states child marriage “is one of the most pernicious manifestations of the unequal power relations between females and males” and “both a cause and a consequence of the most severe form of gender discrimination” (UNICEF, 2008). Is it no wonder this is a controversial proposal by the Turkish government?
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