Draft law proposal allowing muftis to register marriages stirs debate in Turkey

A proposal to allow "muftis," religious civil servants within the body of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), to register and conduct marriages has stirred controversy in Turkey, with many rights organizations as well as the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) criticizing the issue. 

According to a recent draft law on civil registration services, submitted to parliament on July 25, provincial and local muftis will also be granted the authority to conduct marriages in Turkey, in addition to state registrars of marriages in municipalities. 

"It is not a surprise that the first action undertaken by the cabinet, whose part of it has recently changed, is an initiation that will inflict another blow to secularism," CHP Tekirdağ lawmaker and deputy chair of the parliament's committee on gender equality, Candan Yüceer, said. 

"Social life is, step by step, trying to be formed in line with religious rules; the last obstacle to child marriages is trying to be demolished. There are 919 marriage bureaus in 81 provinces. Also, more than 18,000 village heads ['mukhtar'] can perform a marriage ceremony. This is not a regulation that emerged out of need, but instead is the government's arbitrariness," Yüceer noted. 

CHP Manisa deputy Tur Yıldız Biçer said the draft bill proposal was a violation of the constitution's principle that rules "all citizens should be treated equally and the state does not discriminate in any way based on race or sect." 

"This will turn into a process that religious representatives of the majority sect in Turkey will conduct. Will the representatives of other sects and other religions be given this right? I am not saying this in the sense that it [the...