A culture of honor (or horror) - revisited

In 2010, Turkey was "shaken" by the surfacing of alleged serial rapes in the southeastern city of Siirt, including "shocking" cases of adults raping minors and minors raping toddlers, killing one.

After the scandal fell into the public domain, the mayor of the same town said: "This is a small town and almost everyone is related to everyone. We've closed the case after consultations with the governor, the police and the prosecutor."

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And a cabinet minister from the ruling Justice and Development Party criticized the media for reporting rapes "that had occurred a year ago." 

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Siirt is typically an overwhelmingly Kurdish, conservative Muslim town, run by, apart from an elected mayor, a Turkish elite class of governors, prosecutors, judges and military and security officials. Like every other conservative Kurdish (or Turkish) town, it boasts strict "honor codes." What would violate the town's "honor," typically, are acts like dating, holding hands in public, smoking during Ramadan, tattoos and earrings for men, or a woman letting a piece of her hair be seen in public. Raping minors and covering up the crimes in collaboration with government officials did not violate the town's "honor." Child brides, too, are fine.  

In that year, 2009, a total of 12,635 cases on charges of child sex abuse were opened in Turkey, according to the Justice Ministry's judicial records and statistics office. The number rose by 43 percent to 18,104 in 2014.

The increase between 2004 and 2014 was nearly 350 percent.  

Should we be surprised? It may be a good thing that at least child sex abuse cases have been rising, as it may illustrate bolder law enforcement against criminals - not like in Siirt. But,...