What are the options for little girls in Turkey?

Ten years ago in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, a 12-year-old girl was married off to a 23-year-old man. An imam had carried out their marriage ceremony, which means it was not an official wedding.

Sometime later, the “husband” was arrested for other crimes. The little girl had to go and live with her in-laws. There, she was raped by her father-in-law. She was forced to stay in the house for two more months, but she was able to escape and go to the police. The case is ongoing. 

In the southern province of Adana’s Aladağ district, in a fire in a girls’ dormitory that was run by a religious sect, 11 girls died. Tutors who were working illegally in the dorm’s building were acquitted of charges. The families objected. The victims had told their families and tutors that they were electrocuted by the water and the fuses were broken while they were cleaning (Yes, the children were cleaning), they were shocked by the water. No measures were taken despite their complaints. 

There are other femicides, other rapes and harassments, but the space is limited.   

How can an imam marry off a 12-year-old girl? Isn’t the imam a civil servant? Isn’t there any law enforcement? How come hundreds of illegal, uncontrolled dormitories keep on operating? How can the tutors be dismissed of charges? 

These two stories actually display the options presented to young girls born in Turkey. Unfortunately, their options are not “Shall I be a banker or a doctor; shall I go to a vocational high school or an Anatolian high school; shall I play volleyball or shall I take ballet lessons.” Tens or hundreds of thousands of young girls have to choose between options of many violations of human rights. 

Obviously, the state has to take more deterrent measures. 

Nocturnal and unpunctual brothers and sisters 

Those who don’t have much sleep at night; those who cannot wake up in the mornings; those who are always late everywhere; come on now, high five.

Because brothers, sisters and dear friends, research says we are smarter, more successful, positive and more creative than others. 

There are surveys that prove that. In the first one, they searched for a correlation between kids with high IQs and their sleeping and waking up habits in their adult years. As the IQ gets higher, going to sleep and waking up times become late. The most intelligent ones go to bed after midnight. This hypothesis argues that the smarter ones opt for practicing their own alternatives, adapt to new and different situations better instead of accepting centuries-old human behavior such as waking up with the sun and sleeping in the dark. My hypothesis in my own situation is my inability to switch off my brain at night because of too much thinking, planning and dreaming. 

The other survey is about psychology. The always late ones and the prompt ones are categorized in two different groups. The unpunctual are more positive, more creative and more passionate. The biggest difference between the two groups is the different perceptions on time passing. In an experiment, two groups were asked how much time had passed after being kept waiting for one minute. The average of the punctual ones was 58 seconds; the average of those like me who are always late to meetings was 77 seconds. 

This second group of dreamers and optimists somehow think they will live forever. We may wake up late, arrive late to our meetings; maybe we cannot manage time wisely, but guys, we are smart, and we are dreamers and we sleep quite a lot.