Turkish woman forced to marry her rapist

MUĞLA - Hürriyet Daily News

DHA Photo

A young woman has married a man who her family previously locked her in a room with against her will, daily Akşam reported today.

An 18-year-old woman, identified only by the initials Ö.A., reportedly wished to break an engagement with a fiancé, 28-year-old T.G., who was chosen by her family. In response, her family shut her in a room with the man in the hopes that she would be forced to marry him if they had sexual intercourse.

The woman managed to escape from the room by jumping out of window and fleeing to the gendarmerie, resulting in the detention of her family and fiancé. Her family was later released.

During the Nov. 21 trial for the case, held at the Fethiye Court for Serious Crimes, it was revealed that the woman reportedly declared her wish to marry the man, who is currently being held in prison, and they were wed on Sep. 3 at the Fethiye Registry Office.

She reversed her previous statements and testified, “I wanted to keep the engagement phase a little longer. There was no problem. A few days before the incident, I stayed with my fiancé at his aunt’s home; there he said he wanted to have sex with me. When I refused, he left the room. Then I heard a voice from outside and jumped out of the window so that his aunt would not see me. I haven’t filed a complaint against him.”

Previously in August, however, daily Akşam reported the woman’s statement that her family was forcing her to marry her now-husband although she was in love with another man.

During the hearing, the man’s lawyer provided photos of the couple in an attempt to prove their affair and demanded the defendant’s release. The court board rejected the demand on the grounds that the man was charged with sexually assaulting her.