Marriage Laws in the Turkish State

Many people may be influenced by stereotypes of Muslim countries and immediately think of polygamy when they think of the Turkish marriage system. Although Turkey is a country where the majority of the population is of the Muslim faith, it is because since 1926 Turkey has abolished the Sharia law in favor of the Turkish Civil Code, which is modeled after the Swiss Civil Code.

At least by government decree, there are laws that explicitly state that only monogamy is recognized in Turkey, and that non-Muslims can marry Muslims without being bound by the teachings of the Muslim religion and without having to become Muslims. If a Turk wants to remarry, he or she must first obtain a divorce or show proof that the former spouse is dead.

Turkish citizens who wish to get married must go to the marriage registration department of the local government office, accompanied by a government official and two witnesses, to complete the registration of the marriage and obtain a marriage certificate (in Turkish: Uluslarlarasi Aile Cuzdani / in French: Livre de famille international), which is (Turkish: Uluslarlarasi Aile Cuzdani / French: Livre de famille international), which is a document necessary to prove the existence of a legal marriage relationship and is usually kept by the wife.

Because Turkey is a secular state, although people are free to celebrate religious marriages (Muslim weddings), only couples married in civil weddings and their legitimate children are protected under Turkish law and have the right to inherit from their spouses or to ask for alimony from their ex-husbands in the event of a divorce.

Only a religious marriage ceremony alone has no legal effect and no inheritance/alimony rights, but a civil law marriage must be registered. Since the religious marriage ceremony is not legally recognized, in the event of the husband's death, the wife and her children (who are considered illegitimate) who are not registered in the civil law marriages have to live on the goodwill of the husband's family since they cannot formally inherit the husband's estate.

Expanded:

Turkish law also stipulates that a civil marriage must be registered before a religious wedding can take place: without a civil marriage certificate being presented beforehand, a Muslim sheikh is theoretically not allowed to officiate at a religious marriage ceremony for the couple.

If a couple celebrates a religious wedding without first registering as civilly married, the couple and the imam who performs the ceremony can be sentenced to two to six months in prison.

The 1926 civil law reform was a top-down, unidirectional reform pushed by a westernized, secular ruling class elite that could not overnight change the traditional view of marriage that Turkish Muslims have held for more than a thousand years.

Most people in the big cities and metropolitan areas realize that civil marriage is a form of protection for women, but old habits die hard, and polygamous marriages are still common in many rural areas of Turkey, especially in areas where women's religious rights and social status are low.

In addition to polygamy, the marriage rate of underage children under the age of 18, especially underage girls, is much higher in Turkey than in other European countries. According to studies by Turkish scholars, nearly 30-40% of Turkish brides each year are under the age of 18 when they marry.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Turkey Cultural Practices

Baidu Encyclopedia-Turkey