Local media reported that the provincial mufti of Mersin city in Turkey advised Quran course instructors to 'caress the head and the face of the children, to touch, hug and kiss them'. The advice was given during a seminar for the instructors on Quran courses including the age group 4-6.
The advice was reasoned that the instructors 'need to ingratiate themselves'.
'PHYSICAL CONTACT IS WRONG'
Expert psychologists and pedagogues warn that children are not capable of differentiating between caressing and molesting attitudes and thus physical contact with children is wrong.
Psychologist İlknur Efeçınar notes that "erogenous parts of children, their cheeks, necks and palms are not educational materials. Even the medical doctors can touch children in the presence of their parents.'
Prof. Dr Nejla Kurul, a pedagogue, also warns that the children need to be taught their bodies are their own and that they need to learn to reject the touch of people other than their immediate families because the children cannot differentiate between caressing and molesting attitudes.
CHILD MOLESTATION RAMPANT IN TURKEY
As the number of 'student houses' and dormitories founded by religious cults is on the increase, so does the scandalous news on child molestation in those places.
The scandalous outbreak of the news on the systematic rape of 45 children at the reactionary Ensar Foundation dormitory, which is a pro-government institution in Turkey, had shaken Turkey for a long time in 2016.
With recent law amendments, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey legitimised de facto reduction of marriage age to 12 years old and thus legitimised sexual crimes against children at this age since the perpetrators would go unpunished.
The recent data on child molestation in Turkey reveals that the number of lawsuits against child molestation is on the increase.
While the number of the lawsuits for child molestation was 2.414 in 2006, it rose to 16.957. 55.9 in 2015. These numbers, however, demonstrate only the cases that were recorded. It is also known by the public that young children and even women refrain from admitting that they were abused or raped. Thus, the real cases must outnumber the official records.
