MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Rıha - Refugee women, who flocked to the border cities due to the civil war in Syria, have been subjected to serious social and economic rights violations for years. There are many refugee women living in Urfa province, where suspicious deaths and murder of refugee women increase every day. Most of the refugee women have been driven into polygamous marriages in the city. In the first article of our article series, we interviewed refugee women, who were forced into polygamous marriages. In the second article, we spoke to lawyers and human rights defenders about polygamous marriages imposed on refugee women.

Lawyer Canan Beritan Gökkan, a member of the Urfa Bar Association’s Refugee Commission, stated that polygamous marriages began to increase in 2015 in the city. Noting that polygamous marriages are considered normal in Syria, Canan Beritan Gökkan said that women have been left unprotected after coming to a country they don’t know. “Refugee women accept to be second or third wives due to the economic difficulties they face. Accepting to be second or third wives doesn’t mean they want to be second wives. Old men get married to 15-year-old Syrian girls. And this situation is normalized in the city,” she told us.

“Women fleeing violence face another form of violence”

Pointing out that 14-15-year-old girls are married to 70-year-old men through intermediaries, Canan Beritan Gökkan said that the girls are driven into marriages due to financial difficulties faced by their families. “Women and girls fleeing violence face another form of violence. Most women are forced into polygamous marriages,” she added.

“The system is insufficient to solve problems faced by women”

Underlining that the refugee women, who are forced into polygamous marriages, have no legal rights, Canan Beritan Gökkan said, “When they have children, their children don’t have ID cards. Refugee women think they don’t have any rights if they don’t have an ID card. Most refugee women don’t know anything about their rights guaranteed by Law No 6284. They don’t report violence because they are afraid of being deported. When refugee women go to a police station to report the violence against them, they cannot tell what they want to tell due to the lack of an interpreter. In this context, the system is insufficient to solve problems faced by refugee women.”

“They get married because they are not safe”

We spoke to Sümeyye Koç, co-chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Urfa office, about the increasing number of polygamous marriages in Urfa.  Emphasizing that marriage means having both social status and economic security in Syria, Sümeyye Koç said that polygamous marriages are normal in Syria. Stating that women who fled from the war get married to meet the economic expenses of their families or not to be a burden for their families, Sümeyye Koç said, “Most Syrian refugees are women and children. Most of the refugee women lost their husbands or their husbands went to other countries. This situation makes Syrian women the target of polygamous marriage. Refugee women prefer to be second or third wives to protect them from dangers.

“Polygamous marriages pave the way for serious rights violations against women”

Pointing out that victims of polygamous marriages suffer from emotional, social, and economic violence, Sümeyye Koç emphasized that rights violations against refugee women cannot be ignored. “Syrian women are forced to accept all kinds of difficult conditions of polygamous marriage in order to avoid economic and social insecurity. In a polygamous marriage, two women are subjected to sexual and emotional abuse. In order to end polygamous marriages, economic and social security mechanisms should be formed and women should be saved from being the target of exploitation. Awareness-raising campaigns and programs should be carried out. Our people should understand that these women have to accept to be second wives to survive.”