AKP municipality: Children can marry at 10 or 12

One municipality administration governed by AKP handed out books to the newly wed, involving outrageous statements
Saturday, 17 December 2016 04:15

The Municipality of Kütahya, in western Turkey, governed by AKP, handed out a book named “The Married and Family Life” to the newly wed, written by Hasan Çalışkan who used to work as a religious official for the Religious Affairs Administration.

The “educative manual”, which was given to the newly wed right after the wedding, contains outrageous statements such as:

- “If a woman sees a man more handsome than her husband, her heart might turn to that man, so she must stay home.”

- “On of the two working women are abused or mobbed. So, working life badly influences the woman’s sexual duties for her husband.”

- “A woman who does not beautify herself for her husband, and who does not obey the headman ship of the man can be beaten; this would remind her of the ruler of the house, which is like medicine.”

- “Polygamy is beneficial. Would it not be better if, instead of divorcing his bad-tempered wife and making her a trouble for another man, the man took a second wife, prompting her feelings of competition, and eventually bringing her down?”

- “When the man is angry, the wife must stop talking right away, apologize, and avoid annoying her husband.”

The issue was brought forward at the Grand Assembly by CHP’s deputy Fatma Kaplan Hürriyet. Showing the book to the AKP’s deputies, Hürriyet stated: “If I read this book to you, which has been completely built upon the man’s sexual life with expressions in it, such as ‘If you do not abide by these methods, your child will be an imbecile’, ‘If you talk while having sex, your child will be a stutterer’, or ‘The wife must be skillful in domestic work and doing her husband’s work’, you would blush like a tomato.”

Qualifying the book as “a book of perverse fantasies”, Hürriyet maintained: “This is an irrational, unconscionable book that considers women as sheep, by saying the ‘the man is the shepherd of the family’. My hairs stood on end as I continued to read it. The book mentions the details of the nuptial night. It mentions ‘the right of sexual exploitation’, obedience to the husband, and it says that ‘the good woman is one who is obedient’, that a woman cannot go out without the knowledge of her husband, and that she must wear flirtatious dresses and try to please her husband when he beats her. This book says that a woman must not complain much.”

Another book brought up to the agenda by Hürriyet is given to the newly wed by another municipality of AKP, the District Municipality of Pamukkale in Denizli. The book, named “Wedding and Its Privacies in Islam”, which is given alongside by a copy of the Quran, also involves scandalous expressions. As Hürriyet indicates: “It considers ballet as the pit of the devil, theatre and cinema as the devil’s nest, and shaking and kissing hands as things that stimulate lust and approximate one to adultery. Women must not go to the gym. It also specifies that, in the southern areas that have rather warm climates, children can get married at the age of 10 or 12.”