Underage bride allegedly tortured, raped by in-laws in Turkey's northwest

SAKARYA - Doğan News Agency (DHA)

Hürriyet photo

A 16-year-old girl in the northwestern province of Sakarya has accused her husband and parents-in-law of beating, torturing and raping her, Doğan News Agency (DHA) reported today. 
 
The allegations came to light after the girl, S.B., told her parents about the ongoing abuse in their home.
 
S.B. said she married her 20-year-old cousin B.K. in a religious ceremony with her parents' consent when she was in eighth grade and moved to Sakarya from Ankara to live with her husband and in-laws nine months ago. 
 
S.B. said she was constantly abused and beaten by her husband and her mother-in-law, H.K. 

"The violence began in the fourth month of our marriage," S.B. said. "My husband would get drunk and beat me after my mother-in-law incited him by saying that I did not get any cooking or cleaning done. They would kick and slap me, or hit my arms with a stick. Sometimes they took turns beating me.”
 
S.B. was taken to the Sakarya Maternity and Child Care Hospital after her family notified the authorities of the abuse. She was hospitalized with burn marks on her legs and on her sexual organ, the report said.
 
Tortured with pliers
 
Her husband tortured her by squashing her lips with a pair of pliers, S.B. told the authorities during questioning supervised by a psychologist at the hospital in Sakarya. 
 
S.B. said her mother-in-law beat her for the slightest of excuses. "One time she dragged me to the bathroom and picked up a red-hot metal rod from the coal stove we used to heat bath water. She pressed the hot metal on sensitive areas on my legs and on and around my sexual organ," S.B. reportedly said. 
 
"She also beat me with a hot iron bar in a separate incident," she told the police.
 
In her testimony, S.B. also said her father-in-law S.K. raped her on New Year's Eve.
 
The girl said her husband and his relatives took her to the banks of the Sakarya River once where "they grabbed my arms and dangled me above the waters, threatening to drop me into the river below. I was screaming the whole time.” 
 
S.B.'s husband and his relatives fled after learning that she had filed a complaint, the report said. 

Police are currently searching for the family members accused of the torture and rape.