Outrage in Turkey over child marriage

 

The highest religious body suggests that children as young as nine can get married under the Islamic law.

 

Turkey- This outcry for investigating child marriages started when an online glossary of Islamic terms was posted by  Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs or Diyanet which is responsible for the administration of religious and educational institutions of Turkey. In the documents it is stated how according to Islam boys are to be married by the age of 12 and girls by the age of 10.

The glossary has been removed but 30 MP’s from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) want more than removing the document and are demanding further and better investigation of child marriages. Murat Bakan on Twitter said child marriages “violates children’s rights, women’s rights and human rights,”

However according to the civil code,  the legal age to get married is 18 , 16 with parents consent. In Turkey, 15 percent of girls in Turkey are estimated to be married before their 18th birthday.

 

“We cannot ignore this.  “There are 3,800 cases and thousands of children. The children are paying the price of their parents’ mistakes.”- Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. 

Diyanet then released statement;

“Forcing a young girl to marry someone before they obtain the psychological and biological maturity, and before they gain the responsibility to make a family and become a mother, would not comply with Islam which puts consent and will as a condition in a marriage, Our directorate has never approved early marriages in the past, and it never will."