Now that's a Fatwa I can agree with

[tay]

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has issued a fatwa against underage marriages, saying they “shattered the lives of children.”

The fatwa, included in a release responding to frequently asked questions from the public, said underage marriage could never be approved from a religious perspective.

It added that underage marriage put children “under biological, psychological and economic burdens they cannot deal with, as it also causes them to fall behind in their education and stops them from having a proper childhood.”

The fatwa noted that the practice is wrong both between underage couples and between one underage person and an adult.

The note came at a time when Turkish authorities have moved to overhaul a law on child abuse, prompted by public outrage that peaked after a controversial decision was taken by the Constitutional Court in July.

According to a decision taken by the Court that went into effect on July 13, not all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 will be regarded as “sexual abuse.”

The decision stirred outrage from academics and women’s rights activists, who warned that it would lead to cases of child abuse going unpunished. The ruling of the court, which was an annulment of an earlier local court ruling, also echoed abroad, with Austria and Sweden issuing condemnations.

Following a diplomatic spat between Sweden and Turkey, authorities in Ankara moved to increase - rather than decrease – minimum sentences for child abuse.

As part of the plans initiated by Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ, gradual punishments based on the age of the victims will go into law.

The law aims to make a distinction made between victims aged under 12 and those aged between 12 and 18, with the new law toughening sentences for offenders targeting children under 12.

In sexual abuse cases with victims under the age of 12, the minimum sentence will be 10 years, while in rape cases with victims under 12 the minimum sentence will be 18 years.

In sexual abuse cases with victims aged between 12 and 18, the current sentence term of eight to 15 years will remain the same, while in rape cases with victims aged between 12 and 18, the current minimum sentence of 16 years in jail will also remain the same.


Turkey’s religious body issues fatwa against underage marriage - RIGHTS

 

[Curious Cdn]

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has issued a fatwa against underage marriages, saying they “shattered the lives of children.”

As punishment, the offending girls will be stoned to death.

 

[Machjo]

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has issued a fatwa against underage marriages, saying they “shattered the lives of children.”

As punishment, the offending girls will be stoned to death.

Actually, Turkey is officially secular, which means that any fatwa technically applies only to Muslims, only secular law applies to all.

But regardless, now that prohibiting sex with the underaged forms a part of shari'a, Canada needs to promote underage sex to protect us from creeping shari'a, right?

One interesting country though is Tunisia. Its laws are based on Muslim law, not secular law, yet it has prohibited the contracting of a polygamous marriage. It's based on the following:

Koran 4:3 states:

And if ye are apprehensive that ye shall not deal fairly with orphans, then, of other women who seem good in your eyes, marry but two, or three, or four; and if ye still fear that ye shall not act equitably, then one only; or the slaves whom ye have acquired: this will make justice on your part easier.

Koran 4:129 states:

And ye will not have it at all in your power to treat your wives alike, even though you fain would do so; but yield not wholly to disinclination, so that ye leave one of them as it were in suspense; if ye come to an understanding, and fear God, then, verily, God is Forgiving, Merciful.

The argument is that 4:3 makes polygamy conditional on the man treating all of his wives equitably, but 4:129 states that he can't do so.

However, since the Koran also strongly discourages devorce, Tunisia still recognizes polygamous marriages that are legally contracted abroad. But in principle if all states adopted Tunisia's policy, legal polygamy would disappear through attrition since no state would allow anyone to legaly contract a polygamous marriage on its soil but would only recognize such a marriage legally contracted abroad.

However, illegal polygamy still happens in Tunisia, but any sexual relation within such a marriage is covered under Tunisia's fornication laws since the marriage is not recognized.

But now that Tunisia enjoins monogamy as per Muslim law, it's time we promoted polygamy. We don't want creeking Shari'a in Canada now do we.

 

[tay]

Thousands of people, including women and children, protested on Saturday in Istanbul against a controversial bill that would overturn men's convictions for child sex assault if they married their victims.

At least 3000 people took part in the demonstration in the city's Asian side. They clapped and whistled as others shouted anti-government slogans.

"We will not shut up. We will not obey," they shouted.

The opposition, celebrities, and even an association whose deputy chairman is Mr Erdogan's daughter have expressed alarm over the move.

But the government insists the legislation was aimed at dealing with the widespread custom of child marriages and the criticism was a crude distortion of its aim.

The measures were approved in an initial parliamentary reading on Thursday and will be voted on again in a second debate in the coming days. Critics have said the government is encouraging the rape of minors.

If passed, the law would allow the release from prison of men guilty of assaulting a minor if the act was committed without "force, threat, or any other restriction on consent" and if the aggressor "marries the victim".

The legal age of consent in Turkey is 18 but child marriage is widespread, especially in the southeast.

The UN children's fund said Saturday it was "deeply concerned" over the bill

"These abject forms of violence against children are crimes which should be punished as such, and in all cases the best interest of the child should prevail," spokesman Christophe Boulierac told AFP.

The latest controversy comes after Turkey's constitutional court in July annulled a criminal code provision punishing as "sexual abuse" all sexual acts involving children under the age of 15.

Defenders of that law argued it made a distinction between cases of sexual acts involving a young teenager as opposed to a much younger child.

Thousands rally against Turkey's new child sex conviction bill - 9news.com.au

 

[MHz]

If Turkey wasn't backwards why is that practice legal to begin with and when did it get put on the books in the first place?? How about if child brides were marred by a groom within 10 years of the bride's age and sex would not take place until she (or he) was a certain age? If a child is an orphan they would need an income that would make them independent enough that they would be tempted to marry just for food and shelter. Muslims probably have been kept poor as they spend their money on useful things rather than disposable things like we do. Lack of a big military budget would be the most glaring difference. There are a few examples of Muslims getting enough slack rope that examples exist on what changes they would make and in all the cases it was more progressive that what happened when the US decided it was their right to decide the fate of another nation(s). Clearly that latter version is the one that needs changing more.