Solving Turkey’s puzzle: Children as brides, parents as abusers

What makes the action so progressive, though, is the defendants who are charged with sexual abuse are the children’s parents.

A prosecutor’s office filed a criminal complaint last week against the parents of a 15-year-old in Bolu on charges of “attempted sexual abuse” and “deprivation of liberty” for trying to marry off their young daughter against her will. The parents of the girl countered that because the marriage has not yet taken place and the child has not been physically abused no crime has occurred.

In another incident, Nizip Public Prosecutor Burç Berkan Alp charged the family of a 12-year-old girl who gave birth last week in Gaziantep with sexual abuse, as the young girl was married well below the legal age limit. But these stories are merely the latest manifestations of a chronic malady ailing Turkey.

Child brides in Atatürk Olympic Stadium

While most young girls busy themselves with classwork and friends, more than 180,000 girls under the age of 18 are married in Turkey, according to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat).

But what does that really mean?

If all of the child brides in Turkey were brought to the country’s biggest soccer stadium (52,695 capacity), Galatasaray’s Turk Telekom Stadium, they would fill every seat, more than three times over.

Even if they were moved to Atatürk Olympic Stadium (76,000 capacity), the girls and young women wedded under the age of 18 would fill Turkey’s largest-capacity stadium more than two times over.

While eastern and southeastern Turkey are traditionally considered the hotbed of early marriage, activists argue it is important to remember nearly 25,000 of Turkey’s child brides live in the western province of İstanbul.

‘What’s the point of law if it’s not implemented?’

According to Turkish women’s rights activist Pınar İlkkaracan, the problem is not the law itself but its lack of implementation. “Early marriage has been forbidden in Turkey since 1926. That is 85 years,” she said.

According to the Turkish Civil Code, a person is allowed to marry at the age of 18 without parental consent. An individual may marry at age 17 with parental consent and at age 16 under special circumstances with court approval.

But legal experts say families easily maneuver around the marriageable age laws. Some families who want their daughters to get married early appeal to the court for approval, but most simply skirt the state altogether.

“All these years there have been no real coordinated efforts to prevent early marriages despite this law,” İlkkaracan lamented. “What is the point of a law if it is not implemented?”

So when public prosecutors came forward last week to file criminal complaints against the families of two child brides on charges of sexual abuse and attempted sexual abuse, activists lauded the cases as a “beacon of hope” for other underage brides and a positive step in the direction of greater children and women’s human rights in Turkey.

İlkkaracan praised the prosecutors for such progressive action and, like other activists, agreed the parents were guilty of sexual abuse. “It is clearly against the law,” she stated matter-of-factly. “It is the parents who are marrying off these young girls. Of course they should be prosecuted.”

Child on the Agenda, an association promoting children’s rights, followed suit by filing a criminal complaint against the parents of the 12-year-old child bride who gave birth last Wednesday with the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office. Officials of the association called on the Ministry of Family and Social Policy to place the young girl under protection.

Ankara attorney Gürkan Özocak, in comments to Sunday’s Zaman, reaffirmed that the charges have teeth in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

According to Article 103 of the TCK, “A person who sexually abuses a child shall be punished by imprisonment of three to eight years.” Accordingly, a person entering into sexual relations with a child under 15 years of age whether it is consensual or not is punishable under this article.

Özacak then elaborated on the difference between “abetting” and “attempted” sexual abuse charges. “If the families of child brides marry off their children by means of unofficial marriage arrangements and the children enter into sexual relations with the person with whom they are forced to marry, the parents are liable for ‘abetting crimes of sexual abuse’ and face between three and eight years for each person who had sexual relations with their child,” he said.

But if the marriage has not yet occurred or if it has not been consummated, as is the case with the 15-year-old in Bolu, the parents could then face charges of “attempted sexual abuse.”

Putting parents behind bars -- deterrent, not a panacea

“One of the most important reasons behind child marriages in Turkey is the children’s parents. Deterrent penalties for parents who marry off their young children against the law are extremely important,” Özocak commented.

The attorney, therefore, agreed that prosecuting families for wedding their underage daughters against their will could discourage others from doing the same. “If parents are penalized for committing such crimes against their children, it could be a deterrent and raise awareness of child marriages among other parents,” he said.

But some experts have wondered whether the solution to an issue as culturally entrenched as child marriage can be found in the legal system.

Bahçeşehir University sociology department head Nilüfer Narlı sat down with Sunday’s Zaman to explain the culture that surrounds child marriages in Turkey. According to Narlı, difficult economic and security conditions and a culture based on honor and patriarchy fuel the perpetuation of underage marriage in the region.

Recognizing the unfortunate reality, Özocak believes putting parents behind bars is an “important tool in the fight” against early marriage, but he and Narlı added that it cannot be the only solution. “In this case, as in every issue, it is not enough to solve the problem in the criminal system. In my opinion, it is necessary to raise public awareness on this subject and to improve economic conditions,” he emphasized.