NATALIAAAAAA

Hurriyet Daily News reports that Albayrak had been hired to photograph the July 5th wedding at Turgut Özal Nature Park in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya. On the day of, when he noticed that the bride-to-be didn’t look like an adult, he asked the groom her age and learned that she was only 15.

“The groom had come to my studio some two weeks ago and was alone,” Albayrak tells the Daily News. “I saw the bride for the first time at the wedding. She’s a child, and I felt her fear because she was trembling.”

Albayrak then reportedly refused to continue as the wedding photographer and attempted to stop the wedding.

The argument soon turned physical when the groom attacked him as he was attempting to leave, Albayrak says. The photographer ended up breaking the client’s nose in the fight, according to local reports.

Albayrak confirmed the reports in a Facebook post, which has been met with widespread approval, attracting thousands of Likes and hundreds of overwhelmingly positive comments.

“I wish this had never happened, but it did,” Albayrak writes. “And if you were to ask me if I’d do the same thing again, I’d say ‘yes.’ Child brides are [victims] of child abuse and no power on earth can make me photograph a child in a wedding gown.”

The legal minimum age for marriage in Turkey is 18-years-old for both sexes, and child marriage is punishable by imprisonment for men who marry underage girls. Despite being outlawed, however, child marriage is still prevalent in the country and remains a controversial political issue.

btw - let’s remind ourselves, americans, that unlike turkey, in the US the legal minimum age for marriage is only 18 in two states. in alabama, you can be married as young as fourteen years old if you have “parental permission”. in california, you can get married under 18 if you go to counseling, have a parent with you when you apply for the marriage license, and appear before a judge. in some states, there isn’t even a specific minimum age for marriage.

the minimum marriage age for girls in new hampshire is 13 years old.

48 states allow child marriage.

Tehani, 8, Yemen. “Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him,” Tehani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for a portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their home in Hajjah.

Destaye, 11, and Addisu, 23, Ethiopia. Addisu and his new bride Destaye are married in a traditional Ethiopian Orthodox wedding in the rural areas outside the city of Gondar, Ethiopia. Community members said that because of his standing as a priest, Addisu’s bride had to be a virgin. This was the reason Destaye was given to him at such a young age.

Rajani, 5, India. Long after midnight, Rajani is roused from sleep and carried by her uncle to her wedding. Child marriage is illegal in India, so ceremonies are often held in the wee hours of the morning. It becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer.

Bishal, 15, and Surita, 16, Nepal. Bishal accepts gifts from visitors as his new bride, Surita, sits bored at her new home. Here in Nepal, as in many countries, not only girls, but boys too are married young.

Faiz, 40, and Ghulam, 11, Afghanistan. Ghulam and Faiz sit for a portrait in her home before their wedding in Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of State report “Human Rights Practices for 2011,” approximately 60 percent of girls were married younger than the legal age of 16. Once the girl’s father has agreed to the engagement, she is pulled out of school immediately.

Sarita, 15, India. Sarita is seen in tears before she is sent to her new home with her new groom. The previous day, she and her 8-year-old sister Maya were married to sibling brothers.

Leyualem is transported by mule to her new home on her wedding day. The men later said the cloth was placed over her head so she would not be able to find her way back home, should she want to escape the marriage.

Asia, 14, Yemen. Asia washes her newborn at home in Hajjah while her 2-year-old daughter plays. Asia is still bleeding and ill from childbirth, yet has no knowledge of how to care for herself or access to maternal health care.

Mejgon, 16, Afghanistan. Mejgon weeps in the arms of her case worker near fellow residents at an NGO shelter run by Afghan women in Herat, Afghanistan. Mejgon’s father sold her at the age of 11 to a 60-year-old man for two boxes of heroin.

China, 18, Ethiopia. A young sex worker named China sits stunned after being beat up by a client. Many of the girls who run away from child marriages end up trafficked to brothels where they often face intense violence.

Bibi Aisha, 19, Afghanistan. In a practice known as “baad,” Bibi Aisha’s father promised her to a Taliban fighter when she was 6 years old as compensation for a killing that a member of her family had committed. She was married at 16 and subjected to constant abuse. At 18, she fled the abuse but was caught by police, jailed and then returned to her family. Her father-in-law, husband and three other family members took her into the mountains, cut off her nose and her ears, and left her to die. “I was a woman exchanged for someone else’s wrongdoing. [My new husband] was looking for an excuse to beat me.”

Maya and Kishore pose for a wedding photo in their new home.

With Nujood, according to Wikipedia, her father never gave her the money from the profits of her book. She got married again in 2014 which would put her at 15 or 16 and now has two children.

The photos and captions come from a series done by photographer Stephanie Sinclair. The series is called “Too Young to Wed”.

From the United Nation’s website:

Too Young To Wed portrays child marriage, a harmful practice that devastates the lives of millions of girls who are forced to marry each year. Child marriage is a human rights violation that is commonplace in dozens of countries, even where laws forbid the practice.

The exhibition was organized by VII Photo Agency and endorsed by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)

Feminists are often asked whether pornography causes rape. The fact is that rape and prostitution caused and continue to cause pornography. Politically, culturally, socially, sexually, and economically, rape and prostitution generated pornography; and pornography depends for its continued existence on the rape and prostitution of women. - Andrea Dworkin

(HUGE TRIGGER WARNING FOR THE CONTENT AHEAD)

My stepdad has been with me ever since I was only a few months old. I am twenty-one now. He’s a loving dad to me and my siblings. He provides for us. He’s always been there when we needed him. He has his flaws, sure, but I think all dads do, right?

Some time ago, I was using his computer to study. I needed to access a website I had been on a few days back, so I went into the browser history: big mistake, as you’re probably already pointing out in your own head. And I guess it would’ve been awkward - but almost to be expected - finding “normal” porn in there. Like, I’d roll my eyes, feel embarrassed, move on.

But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

That day, I found out my loving stepdad watches stepdaughter rape pornography. I found out he had been watching a video titled “Feminist raped while boyfriend watches”. I found out he gets off to videos depicting violence against women, specifically the kind that involves scenarios which resemble his real life and women who are just like me.

That was my breaking point to stop consuming pornography and drop all of my support for the industry: I had already been trying to quit for awhile, but having trouble. It was the realization that the men in our lives also access these websites and watch the videos in there, videos that provide them with violent and sick scenarios involving us, the women around them, that finally broke me completely.

Your teachers have access to porn videos of schoolgirl rape. Your pumblers, you electricians, your landlords, your cashiers, your uncles, your fathers, your doctors - all these men you interact with can go home and watch these videos while they fantasize about violently assaulting you.

become hotter than this

JIN/YUA HAVE A PAGE IN A PHOTOBOOK

I’M GOING INSANE RIGHT NOW

“You’re no longer bound by the future. Of course, that includes me too.”

For the first time, I have sad news for everyone. Mana Kinjo, who was played Ui Tatsui in Kishiryu Sentai Rysoulger has passed away in December 1st. The news was confirmed in her social media. We will always remember your joy and smile.

RIP.

Books:

Readings:

Brain Sex

Misconceptions about Radical Feminism

On Womanhood and Rage

On Sex Work

Documentaries:

Anything:

radfem: you have to be homosexual to be gay. women are female humans. humans cannot change their sex. sexism exists. pornography and prostitution are harmful industries. some single-sex spaces are necessary, such as rape recovery centers. etc