Kamil Pasha

Photo from Zaman

Every year, thousands of agricultural workers flock from east and southeast Turkey to the Cukurova Plain, to work in the fields. Among them are many children, kept out of school and working at very young ages for minimal wages. A report in Zaman newspaper suggests that many of these children are put to work as early as age seven in order to help earn the brideprice (baslik parasi) required for young men in their families to be able to marry.

One laborer said he had been coming to work in Cukurova for years in order to earn the money for his son to get married. Sisters are important, he explained, because the baslik parasi they brought to the family when they married would be used by their brothers to pay the baslik to their brides’ families. The number of sisters is important in order for a man to be able to get married, he said. “To open the road for their brothers, girls are married between the ages of 13 and 15. The baslik parasi given for girls between 16 and 17 who haven’t been able to marry falls.”

Yusuf Yüksel is a 30-year-old local activist trying to engage local legal, political and NGO institutions to put a stop to the bride-price custom and early marriage. (My translation. For the article, in Turkish, click here.)

Tags: Culture, Education, Rights, Women //