Commission suggests marrying a child to her rapist

The parliamentary commission on divorce, publicly known as the divorce commission, was formed on Jan. 14, preparing a report that was released on May 16. As if they had done something magnificent, they held a ceremony while they submitted the report to the Office of the Speaker of Parliament. 

This report is pathetic and a disaster. Moreover, it is disgusting. 

It is the official version of seizing the rights of women and children. It is a new form of misogyny and hatred of women. 

Do you know what kind of absurdities it contains? It encourages children to marry their rapists or those who have abused them. They are encouraging child marriages. 

I am writing the sentence again. They are encouraging child marriages, a feudal institution that people and women who have a functioning mind have been trying to prevent for years.  

Supposedly, as if to be supportive of women, they are trying to introduce the practice of castration for rapists. There may be some who agree with this but there should not be. In my opinion, it is nothing but responding to violence with violence. 

Is that finished here? No, it is not.

Let’s continue: When a battered women files for divorce, they suggest mediation and conciliation. In other words, the married woman will be beaten, but the mediator will say, “Let it go; he is your husband. So what if he beats you? Do not wreck your family. Your family is more important than you.” The woman is expected to lower her head and continue to be battered. 

There is an attempt to prevent women who are victims of violence from calling the police during work hours. The reason is that women will be discouraged from filing a complaint. They will continue being battered before succumbing and saying, “This is my destiny,” and accept this torment. 

This is officially a suggestion to discourage women from asking for justice for the violence they are subjected to. 

It is not yet over. 

When it is family law in question, they want all the hearings to be secret. When it is a secret hearing, nobody is allowed; naturally, the press is not allowed in either. Nobody should hear about violence against women, know about it or write about it. 

They want to make divorce more difficult. They want the alimony rights of women to be restricted by time.
 
Let me draw your attention to the fact that all of these are articles against women. They want to restrict the term of litigation. They are trying to avoid giving the 50 percent share of the women’s marital property in the case of the death of her husband. And they also want to base the psychological guidance and counselling services on religious foundations. 

They are trying to remove the rights of women that have been earned.

The head of the Turkish Federation of Women’s Associations (TKDF), Canan Güllü, evaluated the report, saying, “Child abuse and incest are abundant in this country, but they are trying to prevent divorces, which had a rate of 1.69 percent last year because this is their mentality.” 

Güllü said, “Even though it is banned by the Istanbul Convention, the practice of mediation, seizure of shared property rights, granting counselling licenses to graduates of the theology faculty… There are clauses that are impossible to be accepted in a secular country.” 

She went on, “Marrying a person to her rapist and observing them for five years… This last article alone is nauseating. They are considering putting you in the same bed together with the person who raped you and then observing you for five years. This mentality is not the thought of contemporary Turkey.”