Like many Muslim countries, Turkey has a long and troubling history of child brides and arranged marriages. Some Islamic clerics have maintained that there can be no age limitation on child brides. They often note that Muhammad married Aisha when she was seven and consummated the marriage at nine years old.Just as Pakistan recently struck down its protection for girls from such abuse, the Turkish Constitutional Court annulled a provision that punishes all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as “sexual abuse.” It is a major set back for girls and women in Turkey and another example of how the Islamic fundamentalists have taken over this once secular country under the authoritarian rule of our ally Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A lower court insisted that the law is flawed for failing to distinguish between a four-year-old and a fourteen-year-old girl. Most people would find that distinction hard to stomach, but we have seen child brides as young as six in Muslim countries. The lower court also insisted that “consent” must be considered as a defense for girls between the ages of 12 and 15.
Recently, the same members annulled a provision that imposed at least 16 years of imprisonment in cases of child rape for the same reasons.
The vote was a close one: 7-6. However, with Erdoğan taking over every aspect of Turkish government and life, it is doubtful that the courts will remain divided in the future. Erdoğan has demanded that courts, journalists, teachers and every other profession adhere to his views at the risk of arrest.
International conventions treat 18 are the age of majority. International groups have condemned the decision as reinforcing the practice of child brides and the six dissenting members have called the ruling a cause for “public indignation.”
In the meantime, the Erdoğan regime has continued its demands that other countries shutdown media critical of the president or Turkey. It has officially protested stories in Western media on the stripping away of these laws protecting young girls. Erdoğan has been empowered in his efforts to silence the media after Angela Merkel caved into his demands that a comedian be charged for insulting him. Erdoğan has also been encouraged by the Obama Administration’s continued support even as he has rounded up critics, shut down media, and impose Islamic rules on the population.
Sarah – there is a big difference between consent and the age of consent (which has been a moving target) and rape.
Where and when has it moved? (Or are you going to quote Roman law and colonial Brazilian statutes)?
The USGinc. proves it could not care less about the education or well being of young girls.
The next time you find yourself talking rot like this, try inserting the name of a person you know and see if it makes sense to you. As in, “Judy Prue could not care less about the education and well-being of young girls”.
Back in the real world, we live in a society where people fail time and again to produce well-ordered domestic lives and yet both there and in the realm of institutional life, our world is child-centered in manner and degree it was not during my mother’s youth. This is especially true with regard to girls, who are explicitly favored by school officials.
Of course, in a federal republic, the function of education and child custody likes with state and local government. The one thing the federal government can do is attempt to contain cross-border trade. We have a federal agency with a multi-billion dollar budget which has the containment of human trafficking as part of its book. Why not call up your local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and tell the agents on duty that they don’t care about the well being of girls.
John Hancock was America’s number one smuggler prior to the Revolution.
And you got that datum where? Do we know the ‘number two’ and ‘number three’ smugglers?
Art Deco – there is some thought that the reason John Hancock’s signature is so large is that he figured if they lost he was going to be hung either as a smuggler or a revolutionary.
(who do you think you’re fooling? you’re obviously a pedophilic man)
There’s a certain amount of child molestation by women as well. Also seduction of youth. Glenn Reynolds and Robert Stacy McCain have been running regular pieces on schoolteachers.
Art Deco – who do you think the Romans made slaves of?
Mostly war booty. In case you hadn’t noticed, the Roman Empire evaporated 1,500 years ago.
And you might want to check the history of slavery in Brazil and the Ottaman Empire.
Brazil was built on colonial settlement and importation of African slaves. I doubt Ottoman seamanship extended to raiding parties in the Irish sea.
Art Deco – Brazil also imported white slave who were good at metal working to Brazil. The Ottoman Empire got their slaves from the Vikings, the Irish, the English and themselves.
http://www.aroundtheworldineightyyears.com/viking-dublin/
Jill – we have made older men abusers legally. The age of consent was all over the place when I was growing up. It
Where? And should we take it that you’re 120 years old?
Tina Willis (who do you think you’re fooling? you’re obviously a pedophilic man), the reason children can not consent to sexual activity is because their brains have not yet developed to the point where they can make reasonable decisions. Scientific studies of the brain back this up, they can’t understand the full gravity of their choices. It’s why we don’t let 12-year-olds take out loans or sign contracts. It’s why we don’t let 2-year-olds make the choice to only eat tater-tots. The decision to have sex is considered very serious by most females and many men. Children are not equipped to make that decision, and adults (pedophiles or parents) should not be making that decision for them. No child is harmed by not having sexual activity. Regarding the prison comparison, children who commit crimes are in most places not considered fully culpable, and are given reduced sentences. Most places are moving towards rehabilitation, especially for children. When children are severely punished it’s usually because they are past the point where we believe they can be rehabilitated, so focus shifts to keeping society safe from them. There are zero parallels between punishing a child who committed a serious crime and allowing adults to rape kids. Get help.
Sarah – there is a big difference between consent and the age of consent (which has been a moving target) and rape.
What is it with Americans and birth control?
We have a sense of the appropriate that Eurotrash have lost.
—
As we speak, Germany has had for four decades below replacement fertility rates. The tfr in Germany is currently about 1.3, Which is to say that the country is in a demographic death spiral. Somehow I do not think the rubrics of human relations are something that Germany excels at, so only an idiot would emulate Germans.
If kids Under 13 have the mental, moral, emotional ability to CONSENT to commit crimes and be caged for causing PAIN to ADULT VICTIMS. Why can’t they have the same ADULTOPHILE ability to CONSENT to mere benign sex with kind ADULTS sharing mutual PLEASURE and creating NO VICTIMS?
Because to commit crimes is to transgress, something children do and something for which we routinely hold them accountable. (In New York, the only 13 year old defendants tried in Supreme & County Courts are those charged with murder. Ordinarily defendants under 16 are remanded to Family Courts.)
Sex is a component of domestic life, and the number of youths in our time who have the skill and discipline to maintain a domestic life (which incorporates caring for property and children and earning a living) approaches nil in those age groups. The net effect of lowering the age of ‘consent’ is to give a franchise to creepy people such as yourself to exploit the young.
Not least, supposed ‘Christian’ Prison $tate-for-profit U$A jailing far more kids than any other modern state.
The law is properly enforced with punishments. Decent people understand this. You do not, because you’re one of the world’s grotesques.
Paul Schulte, where did I ever imply that only black people were sold into slavery? I was born and raised in a country where a sixtieth of our (Nordic Caucasian) population was kidnapped and brought as slaves to Africa in the 1600s. It’s something that’s taught in our schools and part of our collective consciousness. For 200+ years my people lived in fear of the Africans returning, either because they remembered or were told of the horrors that occurred. Adults, children were brutally raped, tortured, and murdered. This does not negate the fact that black people were also slaves less than two hundred years ago in the US. You have to get over this “any mention of the plight of blacks hurts my sensitive white ass” thing. You’re reacting to something that wasn’t even in the comment to begin with.
And re: your comments about girls developing sooner and no negative outcomes, there have been thousands of studies done documenting the negative effects a teenage pregnancy has on a girl’s life. Lower educational outcomes, worse occupational and social functioning. A girl’s hips aren’t even finished developing until around the age of 16, so childbirth can be downright dangerous. Emergency c-sections are more common, and the children of teen mothers are at a much higher risk of serious physical problems (due to premature labor and other factors).
Hitting puberty sooner also does not mean their brains are developing sooner. The youngest mother in the world was 5. She was developed physically, but she was still 5. Her breasts did not make her capable of consent. Hormones do not speed up brain maturation.
Sarah – you do realize that a lot of white people were slaves, too. Most of them were Irish.
No, they were indentured servants. The period of servitude (to pay debts) commonly lasted about seven years. The practice had just about disappeared by 1830, about a half-generation before mass migration of Catholic Irish to the United States.
Art Deco – who do you think the Romans made slaves of? And you might want to check the history of slavery in Brazil and the Ottaman Empire.
18?! Get outta hear-ya!!
Despite mental, no-fun, fundamentalists of all sects. Not least, supposed ‘Christian’ Prison $tate-for-profit U$A jailing far more kids than any other modern state.
Answer the very simple question that a child can answer.
If kids Under 13 have the mental, moral, emotional ability to CONSENT to commit crimes and be caged for causing PAIN to ADULT VICTIMS. Why can’t they have the same ADULTOPHILE ability to CONSENT to mere benign sex with kind ADULTS sharing mutual PLEASURE and creating NO VICTIMS?
Answers please on the back of a commemorative bi-centennial postage stamp SeXy ’76. Just before the Right-tard Reagan/Thatcher wall went up, and the unelected alien Right-tard media monsta MurDark’s blinds came down.
http://img.4plebs.org/boards/pol/image/1428/27/1428275578709.jpg
@paul
Good point re slavery. And don’t forget the Chinese “coolies” =) Slavery has affected all peoples irregardless of skin colour
@Jill
What is it with Americans and birth control? I don’t get it. When I was in high school – and mind you this was a Department of Defense school in Germany – I decided at 17 I wanted to get on the Pill. My Ma is a fundamentalist Christian so I bypassed her – went to the school nurse – she sat down and explained my options – sent me to a clinic and I got the Pill. Very simple. Saved me from becoming pregnant or facing abortion. ALL of my German friends had their mothers take them to the doc and get on the Pill or IUDs or use condoms.
“I have a question. Why the law defines a child or a minor as anyone under 18? Why not under 17 or 16? Is there a biological link to that age?”
The parts of the brain that deal with risk assessment, long-term planning, and decision making are still developing up until around the age of 25. At 18, kids are about halfway through that process of development, which begins at puberty. We should not be marrying children off because they’re not capable of understanding the full gravity of marriage, sex, and many other facets of adult life. They should be allowed a childhood, only being allowed to make such serious decisions when they’re fully mature. These adult men are taking that away from these kids, making them abusers.
“Jill – we have made older men abusers legally. The age of consent was all over the place when I was growing up. It was 14 for girls in New Jersey. Are girls less mature today? Are they bigger babies? Or are we over-protecting them.”
When I was growing up it was legal to rape your wife. A couple hundred years ago it was legal to own slaves. Are women less capable of handling rape nowadays? Are black people less capable of handling being slaves? Times change. Children should not be married off to or having sex with fully developed adult men.
Sarah – you do realize that a lot of white people were slaves, too. Most of them were Irish. You have get over this all slaves are black racism thing.
@Isaac
W was supported by corporate interests as is Obama as is HRC. We must unite and ensure HRC does not get in the WH. It will be the final nail in the proverbial coffin.
Children seem to be maturing sexually sooner these days and with our histories from other groups, pregnancy at that age does not end their lives.
Um no. The hallmark of the age is the ever distended adolescence (which now incorporates a mean of about 4 years of tertiary schooling). My great-great grandfather completed his schooling at age 12 and then secured an apprenticeship as a turner. That was in 1845, He married young (at 20), but he’d been earning a living of sorts for 8 years at that point.
Instead of Islam the mindless had the church.
Thomas Aquinas and Pascal were mindless? Thanks for your wisdom.
My grandfather married when he was 17 and my grandmother was 14. In today’s definition they were both children.
If you’re the median age for a literate individual, one’s single best guess would be that your grandparents were born ca. 1915. The median age at first marriage during the Depression was (if I’m not mistaken) higher than it was during the 1950s – somewhere around 23. Your grandparents were outliers.
John Hancock was a loyal and profitable servant of the crown before he switched sides when he saw the opportunities. The same was true of almost all of the founding fathers.
If you fancy the American Revolution was a function of commercial interests, you need to send your diplomas back to the people who schooled you (or stop pretending you evaluate source material well).
Art Deco – John Hancock was America’s number one smuggler prior to the Revolution. He was hardly a ‘loyal subject’.