Photographer breaks groom’s nose after learning bride was child

ANKARA (Reuters) — A Turkish photographer was hailed a hero on Wednesday after stepping in to stop a man from marrying a 15-year-old girl amid concerns over rising numbers of child marriages in Turkey.

Onur Albayrak, a wedding photographer, was employed to document a wedding on July 5 in the eastern Turkish province of Malatya.

But when he saw the bride at Malatya’s Turgut Özal Nature Park, he noticed she was very young and trembling with fear, according to one of Turkey’s largest newspapers, the Hurriyet Daily News.

After learning the bride was only 15, Albayrak tried to stop the wedding and broke the groom’s nose in an ensuing scuffle.

On his Facebook page, Albayrak wrote: “Child bride is also child abuse,” adding that he hoped such an incident would not happen again, but was praised for his actions.

Yasmeen Hassan, global executive director of campaign group Equality Now, said despite the fact that Turkey has a minimum age of 18 for marriage more girls were being wed before then and described the photographer’s stand as “epic.”

“Very often for social reasons people don’t want to make a scene so I am really happy he did this. He should be hailed as a hero, we need more people like this,” Hassan said.

“I hope the authorities have taken notice and are prosecuting the groom.”

It is not clear if the marriage went ahead after the incident.

According to data from the United Nations’ children’s agency, Unicef, Turkey has one of the highest rate of child marriage rate in Europe. Unicef figures show that one percent of girls in Turkey get married before 15 and 15 percent by age 18.

Child marriage rates have fallen, but about 12 million girls a year are still married before 18 often with devastating consequences for their health and education, and ending the practice by 2030 is among the United Nations global goals.