According to Turkish newspaper Bir Gun, a 24-year-old woman complained that her imam father married her off to a 29-year-old man when she was just six years old and who even sexually abused her on a daily basis.
The woman, although she filed a lawsuit in 2020, experienced a nightmare at the hands of the man for years. As she complained, in 2012 and at the age of 14, her mother, Fatma Gümüşel, took her to the hospital because of abnormalities in her menstruation.
The mother and the 14-year-old, in order not to arouse suspicion, told the doctor that she was 17 years old and had gotten married on her own initiative. But he realised that the girl had been sexually abused and reported the incident to the police.
She was sent to her abusive husband's house secretly by her mother
According to Bir Gun, the girl testified that when she lived in Changelkioi, a suburb of Istanbul, her imam father married her off to his 29-year-old student - he was in the İsmailağa sect - and neighbor, Kadir Istekli, who was 29 years old.
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A day later, he sent her to Kandir's house and since then the sexual abuse started. He told the little girl that "it was a game."
Years later, the girl said in her statement: "I cried. Kandir said we were married like my mom and dad were married. He said: 'You are my wife, I am your husband. He said: married people play such games, but this game is not told to anyone. My mom and dad called Kandir my son-in-law."
According to the allegations, her mother initially objected. The father allegedly sent his daughter to 29-year-old Kandir Istekli's apartment when his wife was not at home and there she repeatedly experienced sexual abuse.
When did she begin to understand that "it's not a game"
The 24-year-old first became a mother when she was 17. One day she listened to a radio show about young girls getting married. She then realised that what she had experienced was not a game and that she had suffered sexual abuse throughout her childhood.
Despite this, she submitted to her family and the sect. When she turned 18, she was officially married. She recounted her experiences to a woman she met on social media from an account she was secretly using. The woman told her to record her conversation with her husband and file a complaint.
She took the advice, recorded a conversation, and submitted it to the court, as in it Kandir said that "we got married when you were 6 years old and I was raped. I approved the marriage so that the fight would not escalate."
In their statements, the husband, father and mother claimed that the girl was engaged at age 16 and married at age 17, not at age 6, and was not sexually abused.
Ten years after the first complaint, in 2022, the prosecution's indictment vindicated the abused girl, stating that sexual abuse had occurred and that the crime of sexual abuse of the girl had been committed repeatedly.
Turkey: Huge political reactions[BR/]At the same time, there was a strong reaction from Turkey's political parties. The spokesman of the ruling AKP party, Omer Çelik, reacted to the heinous event and said they were closely monitoring developments.
"Child abuse is a damnable crime that will never be forgiven," he said, while opposition leaders reacted equally.
The leader of the Republican People's Party CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said that those who sexually abused the six-year-old child would get what they deserve, while the leader of the Good Party IYI, Meral Aksener, called it a moral decadence and warned that they would not allow this incident to be swept under the carpet.
For his part, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said: "I cannot understand how the marriage of a 6-year-old girl can be real. This is unscrupulous, this is immoral, this is child abuse. Anyone who compromises on this issue, anyone who turns a blind eye, any structure, is complicit in this crime. How many incidents are these, how many times is this ignored, RIGHT!"
Source: iefimerida.gr
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