CHP: Marrying off Children is Sexual Abuse not Tradition

Headline image shows the picture of an underaged girl in a pre-wedding ceremony on a henna night with the message "Tradition" appearing before the picture.

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Republican People’s Party (CHP) MPs have made a press statement on the video prepared by Ministry of Family and Social Policies for March 8 International Women’s Day which has been removed from broadcast over reactions. The MPs have criticized that the ministry has normalized child marriages.

Reminding that “The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, also known as Istanbul Convention” which had been ratified in 2011 required introducing necessary legal regulations which demanded that deliberate actions forcing a child to marriage were considered a crime, CHP MPs have noted that the Constitutional Court nullifying the regulation which required imprisonment for imams and pairs who solemnize religious marriages without a prior civil marriage, had paved the way for child marriages.

The MPs have noted in their statement that marrying off children was in no way a tradition and constituted clearly a sexual abuse. And what lies at the bottom of all these were the primitive and suppressive “make a child, stay at home” mindset which did not consider women individuals. (ÇT/DG)