Bride at 6 years old, the case of paedophilia that shook Turkey

[Artaxerxes II]

https://www.msn.com/it-it/notizie/mondo ... r-AA1r2O4W

AGI - Heavy sentences in Turkey for a paedophilia case that has deeply shaken the country in recent months. The case of a woman H.G.K., now twenty-five, who after her divorce reported her ex-husband and her parents, has aroused indignation and disgust. The latter forced her to marry at the age of 6 to a man who was twenty-nine at the time of the marriage. The judge has put an end to this story with a sentence of 36 years for Kadir Istekli, the man who had taken the child as a bride, and 18 years and 9 months for the father Yusuf Ziya Goksel, both prominent members of an influential religious brotherhood called Ismailaga. The fact that the marriage of this child bride took place in Istanbul, a metropolis that is the beating heart of the country and not in a remote province, has created even more indignation and uproar. The indisputable sign of the power and influence of religious brotherhoods such as the Ismailaga, considered close to the government and present in various areas where it manages student residences and offers lessons in reading the Koran. A marriage decided by a domineering father, who preaching a questionable and radical vision of Islam allowed his daughter to end up in the hands of another member of the same brotherhood and marry him, despite the enormous difference in age. A marriage that was presented to the little girl 'as a game', as emerged from the trial, while it was something terribly serious.

The complaint dates back to 2020, however the news emerged last December only thanks to the journalist Timur Soykan of the daily Birgun. The doubt remains that justice officials have imposed silence on the case because they are close to the brotherhood. In fact, no parliamentary question has taken place in the months following the complaint in a country where marriage between and with minors has been formally prohibited for decades. Today's decision came after the first sentences had been annulled, making a second trial necessary. A circumstance that raised protests from public opinion, which feared that the defendants could get away with it. However, the indignation raised by this story, made public by the daily BirGun and since then followed by the media, social media and the public, united in calling for justice, prevailed. The sentence, which took into account the sexual abuse suffered by the young girl from a very young age, was welcomed with satisfaction by all those who want to turn the page on a past with which Turkey believed it had long since come to terms. And there has been no shortage of accusations against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ended up in the crosshairs of much of public opinion because he is believed to be close to religious brotherhoods, including the Ismailaga to which the protagonists of this terrible story belong.

[Fragment]

One reason I worry about child marriage is because at the negative extreme it can basically amount to rape and slavery. Rather than empowering the minor it can function as a social or economic between two adult men without the desires of the child being taken into account.

We can't know all the details from a short news article. But if the surface evaluation is true, then this is a case that should be illegal even if child marriage itself is legal.

[Artaxerxes II]

One reason I worry about child marriage is because at the negative extreme it can basically amount to rape and slavery. Rather than empowering the minor it can function as a social or economic between two adult men without the desires of the child being taken into account.

We can't know all the details from a short news article. But if the surface evaluation is true, then this is a case that should be illegal even if child marriage itself is legal.

But the thing is:

• Same can happen with adult-adult marriage. After all, forced marriage between adults isn't unheard of.
  
  Any negative event that happens within an intergenerational relationship (or any toxic intergenerational relationship) is then used by antis to tar us MAPs by wrongly generalising what might be edge cases to the MAP community as a whole.

While abuse should be condemned, I don't think that the case cited above is representative of youth-adult marriages as a whole, let alone adult-minor relationships in general, not least because not only are the majority of adult-minor relationships (marital or not) between adults and pubescent youths or minors barely below the local age of majority, but also because abuse and harm aren't inherent to youth-adult marriages.

With that said, I don't think any amount of data or positive cases will ever convince normies given how polarised and politically charged this topic is, especially now that it's part of the culture war what with the left pushing the pedocon theory on how some conservatives defending youth-adult marriage makes them "da reel pedoz" or something.

[Fragment]

While cases like this exist and make the news it is harder to make the case for non-abusive situations.

Same can happen with adult-adult marriage. After all, forced marriage between adults isn't unheard of.

True, especially in a society where women don't have the resources to leave a disagreeable marriage.

Yet I think it's disingenuous to say they're equivalent. There seems to me to be an obvious gap in terms of risk and prevalence.

[AtosW]

I used to be against child marriage on the basis that it is a legal obligation that children shouldn't enter, but i've really gotten more and more positive to it lately.

I'd really like more objective information on how it's worked, especially in the modern age in the countries that still practice it lately, like Gambia, Senegal and Tanzania which i've recently had some connections with. I talked to women in their 20s and 30s there and they're pretty much all quite positive to it, they think it's a beautiful tradition that serves its purpose well, and though they weren't, they wouldn't have minded being subject to it themselves, or to subject their kids to it if they could. And they weren't some extreme conservatives either, not at all, it was part of "modern" life to them as much as of old tribal customs.

I think it hasn't been considered enough as a "solution" to the "problem" of teen pregnancies, that they wouldn't be as much of a problem if teen marriage was the norm, or at least more accepted. A curious thing is that it's mostly more conservative societies that are more tolerant of early marriage, as they haven't adopted the "Western" views of what teens are supposed to do and what women are supposed to be.

On a more personal level, it's just frigging HOT! Imagine being that age and knowing you don't need to worry about finding a mate, no troublesome contacting, no worries about dating, no break-ups... just do what nature meant for you to do, at the age you're meant to do it! Better yet, if my own children were to be offered that.... okay, i'll just stop there, but you get it.