Turkey’s ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, has begun a second attempt at introducing a law to grant rapists amnesty as long as they marry their victim.
This attempt is coming after four years when a similar bill sparked outrage in Turkey and other countries.
The legislation, which was first debated by parliament on 16 January, would give men suspended sentences for child sex offences if the two parties get married and the age difference between them is less than 10 years.
Opposition parties and women’s rights groups have been quick to point out that the bill in effect seeks to legitimise child marriage and statutory rape in a country where the legal age of consent is 18.
The party has said the proposal is designed to deal with Turkey’s widespread child marriage problem.
However, Fidan Ataselim, the general secretary of the activist group , We Will Stop Femicide, has emphasized that the new bill was an attempt by the government to erase evidence of Turkey’s growing epidemic of violence against girls and women.
The group, has reportedly tracked gender-related violence and deaths since Turkish authorities stopped doing so in 2009.
The activism group has an estimate of more than 2,600 women who have been murdered in the last decade, as the number of killings keeps increasing steadily each year.
According to the UN, 38% of Turkish women have suffered physical or sexual violence from a partner.
Fidan Ataselim revealed that;
In 2016 the government introduced a similar draft law on amnesty for child abuse perpetrators. All women stood against it and the bill was withdrawn after our protests. If they dare to try again, we will fight against it again.
On his part, the head of Istanbul University’s criminal and criminal procedure law department, Dr Adem Sözüer, said the new bill was likely to increase rates of violence against women and children because;
It legitimizes the mentality that women are objects to possess or exist for sexual satisfaction.
Protests against the proposed legislation were held around the country this month. A date for a second reading in parliament has not yet been set.
Reports show that the “Marry your rapist” clauses are present in legislation relating to sexual consent in many countries in the Middle East and Latin America.
