Kinship and descent

A booklet giving sex advice to young couples, distributed by the local municipality in the western Turkish province of Kütahya, has drawn condemnation from both the government and the opposition.

In a village in the southern district of ?skenderun, a 14-year-old girl, Ö.B., was sleeping alone at home as 38-year-old crane operator C.B. was working at a construction site nearby.  

According to the Turkish Civil Code (TMK), any child who turns 16 can be allowed to marry if their family appeals to the family court for permission. In 2011 for instance, 20,000 families have gone to court demanding permission to marry their 16-year-old daughters.  

How close should mothers and daughters be? Having grown up with a mother that showed me constant love, but with structure, I remember feeling “envious” of friends who had particularly close relations with their own mothers and who shared all their problems, and even details of their sex lives!

Couples in Turkey will now be required to acquire a ?license to marry? before they can wed following a new cabinet decision.

?A person who applies for marriage according to the provisions of this regulation must prepare the affidavit and the license to marry,? according to an amended article that was published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 10.

Nearly 60% of the babies born in Bulgaria in 2013, or a total of 39 375, were born out of wedlock, according to the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

In 70% of the cases, information about the father was available, according to NSI data, as cited by Darik radio.

In 2013, the number of marriages stood at around 20 000, compared to a number of 82 826 marriages in 1945.

An imam has been sentenced by the courts for performing a marriage ceremony without using state papers and regulations in the eastern province of Bitlis.

A 16-year-old girl, identified by local authorities as R.D., escaped from her home last year after being forced to marry a 17-year-old male in exchange for 12,000 Turkish Liras, daily HaberTürk reported.

Last week two women from Bulgaria were jailed after being flown from their native country to Manchester to marry Pakistani men facing deportation, reports The Telegraph. 

Nadya Kamenova, 20, and Temenuzhka Slavcheva, 21, were recruited by sham marriage organisers on Skype and agreed to marry the men, one of whose student visas had been rescinded.