Flying News Special Edition on "Early and Forced Marriages"

This year's first special edition of the "Flying News" magazine deals with the topic of "early and forced marriage" on a national and international scale. The issue reflects the results of studies carried out by the Flying Broom Communication and Research Association and is supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands.

A problem on an international scale

The issue looks at this world-wide social problem from the Turkish perspective and investigate how the world and European countries in particular tackle the problem of early and forced marriage. The publication includes contributions from feminist researcher Leyla Pervizat, Dicle University faculty member Rüstem Erkan, Head of the Ankara Bar Association Children Rights Centre Şahin Antakyalıoğlu and MP Öznur Çalık. The latter is head of the sub-commission to study early marriage established within the parliamentary Commission for Equal Opportunities of Men and Women. Director Ayfer Ergün contributes with a report about his documentation shot in Ethiopia entitled "A Bull for a Baby" which deals with experiences of women regarding early pregnancy and related fistula diseases.

The special edition is furthermore concerned with rights violations constituted by early and forced marriages in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Austria, France, Denmark, Finland, Spain, the UK, the USA, India and Afghanistan and discusses the measures taken by the respective governments.

Several articles criticize the inappropriateness and the wrong timing of marriage, such as Gülnur Elçik: "Early marriage should not be consummated upon early religious marriage", Pınar Öğünç: "Game over - for whom", Işıl Bayraktar: "Bless virginity", Pınar Dursun: "Vaginism", Hülya Anbarlı: "This is a male language", Gül Yaşartürk: "I am a girl, it is not my mistake, grandpa", Nursel Şengür: "Let's be children that say No!", İlayda Vurdum: "Why do these girls marry?" and Gözde Dağdelen: "I did not have the opportunity to fall in love".

Lack of infrastructure for victimized girls

Selin Berghan draws attention to national and international legislations. Khadije Al Salami, first female director of Yemen, tells about the making of her film about a girl bestowed in marriage at the age of eleven, just like Al Salami herself. Özlem Kınal raises the following question: Should there not be a counselling centre and an emergency number for girls exposed to early marriage?

Moreover, articles and comments have been contributed by representatives of the Women Centreline Workgroup Cooperative 'From the Cocoon to Silk', the Ankara Bar Association, Documentarist, Elele (France), Orient Express (Austria), the Social Democracy Foundation, The Positive Life Foundation, Kaos GL and Pink Life. Photography artists Hakan Aydoğan, Hülya Anbarlı, Şehlem Sebik, Stephanie Sinclair, Işık Gülçubuk, Latife Özyurt and Nurhan Doğan as well as painter Aynur Ekmekçi were in charge of the illustrations.