In the past week, the focus has moved on to two other tragic stories involving 12-year-old girls. Headlines punctuated with exclamation marks blamed mainly the victims’ families, ignoring the fertile ground caused by state neglect and wrongful policies.In Doğubeyazıt, a fifth-grader called Meryem allegedly committed suicide, using her village guard father’s Kalashnikov. Her teacher apparently intercepted an “I love you” note she was trying to pass to a classmate, and the school principal felt the need to inform the girl’s father and brother.
The story, as reported in the press, raises many questions. Did Meryem commit suicide or was it a murder? Even if she did take her own life, doesn’t leaving a child alone in a room with a loaded automatic weapon constitute child endangerment? One of Meryem’s older sisters had hanged herself in 1997. Did a proper inquiry ever take place?
The parents may not have played a direct role in these deaths, but what does it say about the father’s parenting style that he could inspire such fear. Is it really the role of schools to police morals and report such minor and innocent infractions?
Had he known that Meryem was in love, her father later announced, rejecting all responsibility for the lethal outcome, he would have arranged to get her married. Never mind that Turkey’s Civil Code prohibits marriage below the age of 16.
In another part of the country, in Çorum, a 12-year-old was traded eight months ago for four cows and married in front of an imam. When the union failed, she returned, pregnant, to her parents’ house, where, media reports suggest, she was frequently beaten by her father. After she miscarried, she was promptly handed over to a second suitor. Her plight only came to light because a violent disagreement erupted between her second “husband” and her parents, who had demanded a sum of TL 10,000 in bride money but only received TL 3,000.
Seven people, including the girl’s parents, appeared in court. The young girl’s father and her second partner were charged with sexual abuse against a minor. Amazingly, the judge saw fit to return the young girl to the family that had traded her.
Again, many questions are unanswered. Who are the imams who officiate at wedding ceremonies that involve underage girls in flagrant violation of the law? Presumably they are the same ones who provide a religious blessing when men take second or third wives in spite of a ban on polygamy that goes back to 1926. If they are among the 80,000 civil servants employed by the Religious Affairs Directorate, shouldn’t they be disciplined? And are there no charges leveled against “freelance” religious men who promote marriages that constitute child abuse? Unfortunately, these cases are not isolated. They usually take place against a background of tradition, social exclusion, gender discrimination, regional disparities and poverty that require a multi-pronged approach, starting with education.
But the latest Education for All report published by UNESCO suggests that progress toward universal education has slowed in recent years. Up to 640,000 children, 60 percent of them girls, are still not registered in school. Gender magnifies other discriminatory factors such as rural location, Kurdish mother tongue and low income. Nationwide 7 percent fewer girls than boys are enrolled in primary school. By the time they are 15, the gender gap has widened to 20 percent across the country and to 40 percent in the eastern provinces.
Access to education is only one aspect of the problem, but it highlights the authorities’ shortcomings when it comes to delivering the equality and protection offered by the current Constitution. While the government promises a more democratic Turkey, a flawed approach and insufficient action on social issues continue to undermine the country’s future prosperity by failing the next generation, particularly its girls.
