Thousands took to the streets in Turkey in protest against a bill that pardons those who assault underage girls if they married them.
The Turkish government says that it would help curb the menace of child sexual-abuse whereas its critics have said that the bill legitimizes child-rape.
A BBC report says that protestors clapped and chanted "We will not shut up. We will not obey. Withdraw the bill immediately!" Protests took place in several cities across the country.
The proposed law says that any person who has assaulted a minor without "force, threat, or any other restriction on consent" would be released if they married the victim.
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Reports also mention that about 3,000 protestors took to the streets in the Kadikoy square in the capital with placards saying "Rape cannot be legitimised" and "AKP, take your hands off my body"- a reference to the AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which tabled the bill in the Turkish parliament.
A protestor, Fadik Temizyurek, told the BBC: "What does it mean to ask a child if they're OK? Until they're 18, a child remains a child, that is why this has to be condemned. We are here so that this law can't pass."
The government however has denied that the bill would have any such pitfalls, with the country’s justice minister Bekir Bozdag clarifying the same at a recent NATO meeting.
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The UN Children’s Fund has also expressed concern about the matter and the Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has asked party colleagues to hold talks with the opposition about the bill.
The bill also comes after an earlier controversy in the country whose Constitutional Court had annulled parts of the criminal code that classified sexual acts with children under fifteen as illegal in July.
