A women’s unit tied to Kurdish guerrillas has rescued a 17-year-old girl from a forced marriage in the southeastern district of Cizre just as she was about to married off against her will

A women’s unit tied to Kurdish guerrillas has rescued a 17-year-old girl from a forced marriage in the southeastern district of Cizre just as she was about to married off against her will.

“I went to the forces of self-rule, explained to them the situation and started to wait. On the night of the wedding they came to save me,” said the girl, Zeynep.

“First they talked to my family, then said, ‘Let’s go,’ to me. They saved my life. I don’t want to live a life like that. I want to be free and I want to be myself. The women of self-rule told me that I could live my life the way I want to instead of getting married at this age. They told me they were behind me no matter what my decision was,” she said.

Zeynep had been locked inside her home for six months and beaten repeatedly after she refused to marry the man her family had chosen for her.

The girl said many peers were being married off at very young ages and that women were being physically abused, calling on them to contact the Patriotic Democratic Young Women (YDG-K) for assistance.

“You cannot marry off any woman against her will, and it is absolutely impossible to marry off girls,” said Delila, a member of the YDG-K. “It is our task to intervene and be on their side. Together, we will do whatever work is necessary on this.”

Touching on the recent declaration of autonomy in the district, Cizre People’s Assembly Co-Chair Asya Yüksel said the concept of autonomy did not just include self-defense but was also laying a foundation to solve other societal problems, such as women’s issues.

“They marry [girls] saying that their ‘friends with the family,’ but the problems come to us later,” Yüksel said, noting that they were receiving large numbers of applications every month regarding domestic issues.

Source: Jinha Başur,
Sidika Çürük

Sendika.org news (Mehmet Bayram)