<p>Turkey is a dangerous place for women, and it&rsquo;s getting worse. At least 40% of women report some sort of sexual or physical abuse, and the murder rate of women has jumped by over 1,000% since 2003. ;</p>
<p>Last week, the AKP (President Recep Tayyip Erdogan&rsquo;s ruling party) approved a controversial bill that clears men of statutory rape if:</p>
<p>&bull; There was no &ldquo;force or threat&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>&bull; The man marries the victim</p>
<p>Critics slam the bill for legitimizing rape and child marriage as well as letting rapists off the hook.</p>
<p>The Turkish government insists that the bill does not &ldquo;excuse rape,&rdquo; but is aimed to &ldquo;rehabilitate those who may not have realized their sexual relations were unlawful,&rdquo; reports <em>BBC News. ;</em>It will also &ldquo;prevent girls who have sex under the age of 18 from feeling ostracized by their community.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>The bill faces harsh criticism at home and abroad, and many Turkish women are worried that it will encourage men to commit rape.</p>
<p>But the AKP is sure to find support among religious voters in poor areas &ndash; where young girls are married off and the sexual abuse and rape rates are higher &#8211; and supporters will likely say that President Erdogan has liberated pious women by repealing the ban on headscarves in public. ;</p>
<p>Members of parliament will review the bill a second time before casting a final vote on Tuesday. If the bill passes, it could nullify the convictions of nearly 3,000 men accused of sexually assaulting underage women. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Sexual abuse is a crime and there is no consent in it,&rdquo; says MP Ozgur Ozel of the Republican People&rsquo;s Party. &ldquo;This is what the AKP fails to understand. Seeking the consent of a child is something that universal law does not provide for.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag argues that the bill could benefit pregnant women who are in consensual relationships but not married: &ldquo;When a child is then born from this non-official union, the doctor warns the prosecutor and the man is sent to prison, putting the child and mother into financial difficulties.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>PB views this new bill as another step in Turkey&rsquo;s dangerous path towards radical Islam &#8211; a process that ramped up with Erdogan&#8217;s violent response to the failed military coup that rocked Turkey in July. ;</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> This country continues to go backwards under Erdogan.</p>
<p> ;</p>