Özlem Çiçek/JINHA

ISTANBUL – Women in Turkey are outraged in the wake of a ruling by the state religious institution that it is lawful for a man to feel lust for his own daughter. As the debate about the fatwa pays little attention to the justification for child abuse, women have called the discussions in Turkey “ridiculous.”

A website for Q&A on religious topics, operated by Turkey’s state-run Directorate of Religious Affairs, recently answered the question, “Does the lust that a father feels for his own daughter break his engagement with his wife?” with the answer, “This is not unlawful.”

As debates and social media outrage over the “incest fatwa” continue, the High Council of Religious Affairs has claimed that no such fatwa was ever issued. Council chair Ekrem Keleş has announced that websites for answering religious questions have been shut down and an investigation has begun, while the Ministry of Justice has claimed that the so-called “parallel structure” of religious figure Fethullah Gülen was behind the ruling.

Women’s rights organizers have not found the claims very convincing.

Gülsüm Kav is among the founders of the platform We Will Stop Women Homicides. She said that similar to President Erdoğan’s recent remarks expressing admiration for Hitler, it was hard to evaluate the statement as a “slip of the tongue.” She said the state had questions to answer about the incident.

“What does the Council have to say about the fact that someone in the Directorate of Religious Affairs holds such views? What kinds of actions have been taken against these people? Are they themselves against the abuse of women and children?” asked Gülsüm.

Adile Doğan of Istanbul’s Esenyalı Women’s Association said the fatwa question line’s statement served to legitimize the many instances of rape and abuse of women by their fathers, uncles or other relatives that the Esenyalı Women’s Association deals with. She called the ruling “ridiculous.”

(sg/mg/cm)