It would have been surprising if the Diyanet had said anything else. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad consummated his marriage with (i.e., raped) Aisha when she was nine, and the resultant fact that child marriage is accepted in wide swaths of the Islamic world. Child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law.
Turkey’s directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) said in January 2018 that under Islamic law, girls as young as nine can marry.
“Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this” — Ishaq Akintola, professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern, Nigeria
“There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law.” — Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-‘Ubeidi, Iraqi expert on Islamic law
There is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.” — Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council
“Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.” — Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology
Hadiths that Muslims consider authentic record that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage:
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).
Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.
Marrying young girls was not all that unusual for its time, but because in Islam Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct (cf. Qur’an 33:21), he is considered exemplary in this unto today. And so in April 2011, the Bangladesh Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini declared that those trying to pass a law banning child marriage in that country were putting Muhammad in a bad light: “Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, [putting] the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge.” He added a threat: “Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women.” The Mufti said that 200,000 jihadists were ready to sacrifice their lives for any law restricting child marriage.
Likewise the influential website Islamonline.com in December 2010 justified child marriage by invoking not only Muhammad’s example, but the Qur’an as well:
The Noble Qur’an has also mentioned the waiting period [i.e. for a divorced wife to remarry] for the wife who has not yet menstruated, saying: “And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women, if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated” [Qur’an 65:4]. Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur’an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet entered into a marriage contract with A’isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old, according to al-Bukhari.
Other countries make Muhammad’s example the basis of their laws regarding the legal marriageable age for girls. Article 1041 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine: “Marriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.”
According to Amir Taheri in The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (pp. 90-91), Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini himself married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight. Khomeini called marriage to a prepubescent girl “a divine blessing,” and advised the faithful to give their own daughters away accordingly: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.” When he took power in Iran, he lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in accord with Muhammad’s example.
“Turkey’s Religious Affairs Ministry, Authority Over Hagia Sophia Mosque And 2,000 Mosques Around The World, Part II – Statements On Women, Children: Girls Are Permitted To Marry, Become Pregnant At Age Nine; If ‘A Father Lustfully Kisses His Daughter Or Lustfully Hugs Her, The Mother… Becomes Forbidden’ To Him; ‘If He Beats You… Say: “I Will Do Whatever You Like,”‘” MEMRI, August 7, 2020:
The Diyanet’s website said that it was permissible for girls to be married and become pregnant when the reach puberty, and that the minimum age for this for girls was nine, and for boys was 12.[30] The pages were later removed from the website and replaced with a statement that females could get married at age 17 and males at 18.[31] In Turkey in 2018, it was estimated that 483,00 female children were married and that the same year more than 11,000 of them gave birth, of whom 167 were younger than 15 years old.[32]
Diyanet pages saying it is permissible for girls to get married and become pregnant when they reach puberty, the minimum age for which it says is nine.
In January 2016, a user asked the Diyanet via one of its websites: “What is the affect on one’s marriage of feeling lust when kissing one’s daughter?” Fetva.diyanet.gov.tr, the Diyanet’s official fatwa page, answered: “There is a difference of opinion over what happens to a marriage when the father feels lust when kissing his own daughter. According to some sects, for a father to lustfully kiss his daughter or lusfully [sic] hug her, it does not affect the marriage… According to Hanafis, in the event that a father lustfully kisses his daughter or lustfully hugs her, the mother of the daughter becomes haram [forbidden] to the father. But to reach such a conclusion, the holding must be such that skin touches skin, or that the covering is so thin that the heat below it is conveyed. Feeling lust while holding in a thick dress, or while looking at her body and thinking does not cause such a forbiddenness. Also the daughter must be more than nine years old. The sign of feeling lust is the awakening of the man’s organ, or if it is awake, for its wakefulness to increase, and for the woman’s heart to beat with excitement.”[33]
A Diyanet fatwa that reads: “In the event that a father that the father lustfully kisses his daughter or lustfully hugs her, the mother of the daughter becomes haram [forbidden] to the father.”
An entry on Islamansiklopedisi.org.tr, (“Encylopedia of Islam”) a website prepared by the TDV, said that it was not forbidden for someone to marry “a daughter from the former husband of the woman your son married.” One Turkish news outlet announced this ruling in May 2020 with the headline: “Marrying Your Step-Granddaughter Is Halal [Permitted]!”[34] Other outlets mocked the ruling, pointing out that the Diyanet ruled that homosexual marriage was forbidden while such marriages were permitted.
On June 12, 2020, Hüda Kaya, an MP representing the opposition HDP, said, addressing another controversy about Diyanet statements over LGBT people, said: “The Diyanet does not represent me as a Muslim. It is not legitimate… If the Diyanet is going to do its work, if it is going to speak in the name of religion, it should talk about the thievery and the rape of children. It should defend the rights of the boys raped in the Quran schools. It should talk about the corruption and the people who were wrongfully slaughtered.”[35] Others have opposed Diyanet statements and actions with protests and the use of the hashtag and slogan “#DiyanetKapatılsın [#ShutDownTheDiyanet].”[36]
A protester holds up a sign that reads “shut up, Diyanet.”
The March 2016 issue of a children’s magazine that the Diyanet publishes drew reactions for its praise of martyrdom. The magazine included an illustration that read: “May Allah be content with our martyrs, may their graves fill with light.” It showed a father saying to his son: “How great it is to be a martyr!” The son asks: “Would anyone want to be a martyr, dad?” The father answers: “Of course they would, son. Who would not want to achieve paradise!” The issue included lines such as: “The one who is martyred will be so happy in paradise that they will want to be martyred ten times.” And “I wish I too could be a martyr.”
Turkish academic Dr. Serdar Değirmencioğlu, referring to ISIS attacks in Turkey and Europe, Değirmencioğlu said, as reported in a March 2016 article: “They want to spread the message of ‘be a martyr’ with pictures, which they think will be more attractive to children… While Turkey is drowning in pain from these massacres, the Diyanet is trying to spread the ISIS mentality. The Diyanet is trying to spread among children the same mentality, which has opened the way for the deaths of hundreds of people.”[37]
In a cartoon in a Diyanet children’s magazine, a father says to his son: “Of course they would [desire martyrdom], son. Who would not want to achieve paradise!”
On January 1, 2019, it was reported that a book titled “The Prophet And The Young,” produced and distributed for free at a cost of millions of Turkish lira, told children that “it has been established that higher education in secular fields negatively effects religious belief and worship.”[38]
Diyanet Minister Erbaş has said that Diyanet Quran schools are “regions protected from Satan.”[39] While the Diyanet has started Quran schools for pre-schoolers age 4-6, some education researchers have warned that “the Diyanet’s program is not suitable for four-year-old children.”[40] Erbaş said, regarding the number of children that families should have: “We need to develop our population and make it solid in terms of quality and quantity by having three or four, certainly more than two.”[41]
On Women
The Diyanet and its representatives have made many statements about women, regularly prompting protests from women’s groups. In one case the Diyanet reportedly tried to keep a confessed rapist out of prison. İsmail Kaya, a former mufti for the Hazro district of Diyarbakır province, confessed to raping a woman whose initials are H.Y. and who was a teacher at a Quran school for girls, saying: “I obeyed Satan.” The Tele1.com.tr news website reported that there were claims that AKP MPs and Diyanet officials reportedly intervened, and that Diyanet officials threatened the victim, saying that they would dissolve her work contract if she did not withdraw her complaint. She did withdraw her complaint, the court ruled that “there was consent,” and İsmail Kaya was set free.[42] The Diyanet fired the victim anyway as well as Kaya, who was re-arrested and sentenced six months later to 26 years in prison over the rape.[43]
The Diyanet runs 81 provincial mufti’s offices and 326 district mufti’s offices, from which the ministry provides, among other things, “family and religious guidance for the establishment, protection, and strengthening of the family.” Turkish journalist Burcu Karakaş called some of these offices on the phone, asking for advice under the pretext of being a woman whose husband was beating her. Karakaş called the office of the mufti of Konya said that she was thinking of getting divorced because of the violence, and was told: “If it has become unbearable, consult with the elders [of the family]. Almighty Allah says in Surah Al-Nisa: Let the woman and man each try to overcome difficulties [by the help of] someone older than them. Young people jump to conclusions. We say that you should try to overcome the problem [with the help of] the elders in the family.”
Women protest in 2016 with signs that read: “Women will call to account the Diyanet and AKP, which are anti-woman and reactionary!”[44]
Karakaş then called the office of the Mufti of Çorum and said: “He raised his hand, he has not hit me yet but I am worried.” The preacher on the line told her: “In a suitable tone ask him why he is doing that. This is not a very big problem, you can solve it by talking. In the evening you can make something that he likes and speak calmly over tea.” When she asked what she should do if her husband beats her, the preacher told her: “If he beats you, do not react, get away from there. Go to your room. Try to cover up the event by saying: ‘I will do whatever you like.’ But bring it up again at a suitable time. Do not speak with an accusing tone. ‘I do not know how you want it. If I knew, I would do it that way,’ can be said.” When she asked whether it was necessary to call the police, the preacher told Karakaş: “No. You’ll solve such matters, inshallah. Trust in Allah.”[45] It was recently reported that these Family and Religious Guidance bureaus had received 66,625 questions over the seven years, or on average 26 questions per day, leading up to February 2020.[46]
İhsan Şenocak, a theologian for Diyanet, said in a sermon: “Does your heart shatter when your daughter walks down the street to school in pants?… What have you done to what was entrusted to you from Allah? You were happy when she got into a university… She will be a doctor, she will be an engineer… Okay, so you are happy about that. When your daughters walk with pants among the gazes of men, when young bucks are going after her, you’ve thrown your little one into hell.” He was later relieved of his duties at the Diyanet.[47]
Women protest the Diyanet in mid-2018 with signs that read: “Women will prevail, not your anti-woman, anti-child fatwas.”[48]
In August 2013, Dr. Halil İbrahim Karslı, a member of the Diyanet’s Religious Affairs High Council, said that “a woman’s body is a decoration” and for this reason she must cover it. Serap Güre of the Solidarity With Women Foundation (KADAV) replied: “Instead of women covering up, men should stop molesting [them].”[49] When asked whether forced marriages were valid, the Diyanet reported that there was a difference of opinion according to the sects. According to the Diyanet, while the Shafi’i, Maliki, and Hanbali sects do not consider forced marriages valid, the Hanafi sect, which is the majority in Turkey, reportedly does.[50]
It was reported on October 26, 2017, that Dr. Mustafa Karataş was appointed as an undersecretary to the Diyanet. Karataş had said of a woman who had had a miscarriage because her husband beat her: “Do not exaggerate. You should be punished in this world before being going to the other world.”[51] A Diyanet sermon said: “If any woman requests a divorce from her husband without a valid reason, the fragrance of paradise will be forbidden to her.”[52] In 2008, the website of the Diyanet said that “Feminisim is immorality.”[53] The Diyanet has issued fatwas and given sermons saying that it is a sin for unmarried couples to hold hands[54] and it is forbidden for unmarried men and women to shake hands.[55]
Women protest in early 2018 with signs that read: “You cannot legitimize rape!” and “What does the Diyanet want from women and children?”[56]
A woman working at the Diyanet said that she protected the rights of women to wear shorts and mini-skirts as well as the rights of members of the LGBT community “for the approval of Allah” and said that those groups need to be protected as much women who wear the headscarf. The Diyanet later made a statement that saying that her relationship with the Diyanet had been completely cut off because of her views.[57]…