Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Malatya deputy Öznur Çalık, head of a Parliamentary Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men sub-commission, had been working on the study to prevent girls from becoming mothers “when they are too young.”The report will demand that parents who play a role in arranging such marriages be tried as accomplices according to the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).
The sub-commission formed a list of suggestions and findings after conducting research in provinces in which marriages of children below 15 years of age are more common. While noting that one out of every four marriages in Turkey involves such children, the commission pointed out that the rate is as high as one in two in some provinces and as low as 15 percent in others. Economic reasons and traditions also lead to early marriage, the commission found.
There is currently legislation seeking to prevent early marriage in place; however, there are problems in practice. The TCK calls for accomplices in criminal activity to be punished as thought they had committed the actual crime, but if an accomplice is related to a minor, the punishment is to be heavier. The TCK also states that the punishment for engaging in a sexual relationship with a minor is imprisonment. The commission says parents marrying their children off early must be tried under these laws, adding that legislation calling for 15 years in prison for such parents should be enforced.
Noting that early marriage also takes place in the form of an “imam nikahı,” a marriage performed by a religious leader but considered illegal if done before a civil ceremony, the commission says that if the imam nikahı is carried out by a person who is not affiliated with the Religious Affairs Directorate, that person must be punished. It also stresses that compulsory education must last 12 years and that people must be educated about the negative aspects of early marriage.
