HDN
Sahin met with NGO leaders and held a press meeting afterwards. PHOTO/AA
The family and social policies minister has denounced as “unacceptable” a jurist’s suggestion to help speed up Turkey’s sluggish justice system by reinstating a law that acquitted convicted rapists if they agreed to marry their victims.
Minister Fatma ?ahin said Monday she was astonished that an educated person like a judge would make such a proposal in modern-day Turkey, vowing to fight against “weird solutions” stemming from a “male perspective” of looking at problems.
“We will personally follow everything that concerns the establishment of a legal basis to empower women. We will not back down,” ?ahin said during a meeting with civic groups campaigning for women’s rights. “Strengthening women in all areas is a part of our ministry’s main action plan.”
Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, or HSYK, said the controversial suggestion concerning rape victims came from a judge during a seminar and did not represent the collective view of the institution.
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