ANKARA - Ankara Woman Platform Member Latife Kahya, who said that they will not accept the “amnesty by marriage” for the perpetrators of sexual abuse, said: "We will resist like we did back in 2016 against this regulation government keep proposing."

 

The debates about the 'amnesty through marriage for those who commit sexual abuse' continues. Members of parliament,  child and human rights defenders, especially women's organizations, continued to express their reactions to the regulation in question, while pro- gpvernment media outlets are servicing news to legitimize the regulation.  Latife Kahya, Member of Ankara Women's Platform, evaluated the regulation and violence policies of the government towards women.

 

Stating that the arrangement will be presented as a “one-time amnesty”, Kahya said: "The pro-government media outlets are servicing the news about rape and abuse, legitimizing it refering to the rape offender as 'husband', and writing that their family union is destroyed by the news about it.The result of this arrangement will be to reduce the marriage age to 13 with the imam marriage, to legalize the marriage of 13-year-old girls and 28-year-old adult males, to remove girls from education, impoverish them, to deprive them of their futures."

 

Stating that the government has implemented “new attack policies” that will further open the way for women's murders, harassment, rape and child abuse, Kahya said: "At the same time they are trying to cover up these attacks and violence. Children will be forced to marry their rapists in case this proposal is enacted and those offenders will be released from prison as the husbands of those children. This is unacceptable."

 

2016 RESISTANCE

 

Stating that the attacks against İstanbul Convention that imposes the obligation to ensure gender equality to eliminate violence continue, Kahya said: "The Istanbul Convention and the Law No. 6284 should be applied without compromise. Together with all women's organizations and feminist women, we will resist again just like we did back in 2016. Those who are making efforts to marry the children with their abusers should make efforts to investigate effectively and take protective measures for the children."

 

Stating that they, as the women's organizations will be taking to streets against these misogynist policies, Kahya said: "We will continue to fight against violence, poverty, abuse and rape, claiming our basic rights during the pandemic, taking our precautions against coronavirus. As the women, we will not abandon the streets and fight shoulder to shoulder."

 

Kahya called on all women's organizations and political parties to support their fight against the law.