Turkey withdraws child marriage bill, submits it for review

It put the bill forward in the first place because it wanted to address what it calls the “unfair treatment” of families where fathers were jailed for marrying girls under the age of 18, even if both parties and their parents consented.

Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Deputy Europe Director, said on Twitter the withdrawal was “good news” but told AFP the proposals should be rejected “once and for all”. President Erdoğan previously said that underage marriage is a major social problem in the country, claiming that the proposal aimed to “resolve problems arising from such marriages”.

Several thousand people, some carrying banners saying “Rape cannot be acquitted” and “There is no such thing as child brides, only pervert men” demonstrated outside the parliament to demand the immediate cancellation of the bill.

The climbdown is a rare concession by Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has dominated Turkish politics since coming to power in 2002. We will not obey.

Turkey’s prime minister says his government is withdrawing a proposal that critics say would legitimize child marriages and will instead submit it for review by a parliamentary committee.

In a statement they said the proposals would “create a perception of impunity in favor of perpetrators of such child rights violations”.

We can’t allow Turkey to approve a bill excusing child marriage or rape in any form.

Protester Cigdem Evcil, told the BBC: “I am a mother”. “What does that mean?”

“Our priority with this legislation was for the benefit of our children and to protect family integrity”.

But the Turkish government has insisted it was trying to help families in which the men involved were not rapists or sexual aggressors, and who were unaware of the law. “How can the “own will” of such a young girl be identified?” it asked. Thousands have marched in protest here, saying there is no way to differentiate whether or not an underage girl gave her consent, or was forced to do so. According to the Turkish Ministry of Interior, in the last three years almost 135,000 persons below 18 years of age were married in the country, with 20 times more girls than boys. A recent Pew report found that, as of 2014, 57,800 children aged 15 to 17 were married in the U.S. In West Virginia and Texas, where child marriage is most common, about seven of every 1,000 15- to 17-year-olds were married.

Turkey has tabled a controversial measure by the ruling party that would have allowed some sexual abusers of children to escape prison time if they married their victims. It exposes girls to violence throughout their lives, and traps them in a cycle of poverty.