Turkey Turkish television takes on topic of child brides

16 Nov 2011 | Early marriages

‘The New York Times’ reports on a film, entitled “Child Brides”, which is the result of an 18-month information and awareness campaign conducted by the “Flying Broom” women’s rights group, which included seminars, conferences and meetings with local officials and families around the country. A national average of 28 percent of Turkish women are married before the age of 18, said Yildiz Ecevit, a sociology professor at Middle Eastern Technical University. Childhood marriages are “widely accepted” by Turkish society, the report by the Commission on Equality of Opportunity for Women and Men found. The commission slammed child marriages as “violations of children’s rights, women’s rights and human rights”. “State institutions do not yet address this problem sufficiently”, the report found.

Source : The New York Times