Bekir Bozdağ, the spokesperson of the Justice and Development Party government, has advocated the controversial fatwa of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, or Diyanet, allowing girls who reach puberty to marry.
Diyanet states that the minimum age of puberty is 9 in girls, and 12 in boys. "Girls could become pregnant at the age of 9, and boys could become a father when they turned 12," Diyanet says. "While adolescent girls are married, it is more appropriate for them to receive support from their parents, but it is not a necessity", according to the fatwa.
BOZDAĞ: 'DİYANET IMPLEMENTS ALLAH’S LAWS'
"Diyanet implements only one law, Allah's laws, while giving a fatwa," Bozdağ said, defending the recent fatwa of Diyanet, "Girls could become pregnant at the age of 9, and boys could become a father when they turned 12."
As many people in Turkey criticize Diyanet's recent step as it encourages child sexual abuse, "Diyanet is a reliable institution to which citizens resort on religious topics,” Bozdağ said, adding that “Diyanet talks about Islam, it gives fatwas and comments on issues related to Islam."
BOZDAĞ: 'THEY WANT TO DAMAGE THE GOVERNMENT'
Accusing the critics of Diyanet of criticizing the institution in an immoral way, Bozdağ continued, "They are also doing this in order to damage the government. They are doing this as if the government is following a policy that encourages early marriages."
"Do you want Diyanet to give fatwas in accordance to today’s laws or according to Islam? Diyanet only obeys Allah’s laws while giving fatwas," Bozdağ said, implying that Diyanet does not have to take Turkey’s constitutional principle of secularism into account but the sharia laws of Quran, the religious text of Islam.
The AKP government’s spokesperson Bozdağ also announced that he has launched legal action against a daily newspaper, Sözcü, for reporting “false” news about Diyanet’s statements. Bozdağ claims that Sözcü daily merged two different statements of Diyanet and reported that Diyanet said on its website that girls as young as nine could marry.
COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY PROTESTS DİYANET
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) protested Diyanet on January 3 in front of the Religious Affairs Directorate’s building in Ankara. Reading a press release during the protest, the TKP members said, “Diyanet must be shut down”, adding that such an institution cannot exist in a secular country but in an Islamic state.
Diyanet, which is a state institution affiliated to the Prime-ministry, has found the authority to interfere every sphere of life and regulate many fields due to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s Islamization policies.
In 2016, AKP deputies had tried to introduce a law enacting that if a girl, who suffered from sexual abuse, is married up with her rapist, the rape would not be considered a crime. The Turkish government had to withdraw the relevant draft law after severe criticisms.
