ISTANBUL (AP) — A debate flared in Turkey on Friday after a government proposal which would pardon some people imprisoned for statutory rape fell short of passage by legislators. 
 
 The proposal would defer sentencing or punishment for sexual assault in cases where there was no force and where the victim and perpetrator were married. Opposition legislators, rights groups and other critics warned that the proposal facilitates child marriage. 
 
 The proposal was introduced late Thursday by the ruling Justice and Development Party, rooted in Turkey's Islamic movement, which says it is meant to protect those who were too young to marry legally. The proposal will be brought up again for consideration on Tuesday. 
 
 An earlier law said there is no sexual assault if the couple marry. It was replaced by the current law in 2005, which set a minimum prison sentence of eight years, extended to 16 years in 2014. 
 
 "Those aren't rapists, they aren't people who committed sexual assault by force. Those are acts done with the consent of families and the young ones," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Friday, adding that the later law had ignored the matter of consent. 
 
 Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said: "In the past there were people who were not aware of the law. The fathers have ended up in prison. This is a one-time measure to correct an unjust situation. It is an important problem." 
 
 The government's proposal would apply to cases between 2005 and Nov. 16 of this year, which would affect an estimated 3,000 families. 
 
 Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported several opposition legislators slamming the proposal. Republican People's Party Deputy Chair Tekin Bingol said they "strongly rejected" it, saying it amounted to a pardon for rapists. 
 
 Mehmet Onur Yilmaz of Gundem Cocuk, a children's rights organization whose operations were halted by the government last week, told The Associated Press the issue stemmed from not taking child marriage seriously. 
 
 "If there was an understanding that child marriage constituted sexual assault such a proposal would not even be brought up," said Yilmaz. "This comes from looking at the matter with a focus on marriage, a conservative understanding which sees marriage as a solution to the problem of abuse." 
 
 Under current law, Yilmaz said, a person between the ages of 16-18 can get a special exemption allowing marriage by a court, and that is almost always granted. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption The capital Ankara has seen furious protests 
 
 Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has withdrawn a bill that pardons men convicted of sex with underage girls if they have married them. 
 
 The bill, part of a package of amendments to the legal system, was sent back for further work just hours before a final vote in parliament. 
 
 It had sparked protests across Turkish society and was condemned abroad. 
 
 Critics said it would legitimise statutory rape and encourage the practice of taking child brides. 
 
 UN agencies had called on the government not to approve the bill, arguing that it would damage the country's ability to combat sexual abuse and child marriage. 
 
 But the government says the main aim is to exonerate men imprisoned for marrying an underage girl apparently with her or her family's consent. 
 
 The draft law will now be returned to a commission which will take into account the views of the opposition and civil society, Mr Yildirim said. 
 
 This would allow for "broad consensus" and to "give time for the opposition parties to develop their proposals". 
 
 A rare consensus: Analysis, Mark Lowen, BBC Turkey correspondent 
 
 This bill sparked a rare thing here: cross-party opposition. The AKP MPs who proposed it insisted it would not pardon rapists or sexual abusers and was simply intended to exonerate men who marry underage girls apparently with consent. 
 
 However, critics said that in patriarchal Turkey, a young girl would feel unable to give consent and so the bill would have legitimised rape and encouraged child brides. When conservative, usually pro-government, women spoke out against it - including the president's wife - the bill was doomed to failure. 
 
 Child marriage is a problem here. Former President Abdullah Gul famously married when he was 30 and his wife 15. 
 
 But women's groups say the solution is not controversial legislation such as this but real opportunities for girls. And they say the Islamist AKP has encouraged female subservience, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling childless women "deficient". 
 
 It's led to a huge rise in physical abuse of women, with the murder rate said to have increased by 1,400% between 2003 and 2010 - although some believe that number is partly due to more cases being reported than ever before. 
 
 Turkey's legal age of consent is 18 but the practice of underage weddings in religious ceremonies remains widespread. 
 
 Opposition parties heavily criticised the bill which had been approved in an initial parliamentary reading on Thursday. 
 
 The ruling AK Party dominates parliament in Ankara. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption It is a rare setback for Prime Minister Yildirim (waving) and the AKP 
 
 Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag had defended the legislation, saying: "The bill will certainly not bring amnesty to rapists.... This is a step taken to solve a problem in some parts of our country." 
 
 In July, Turkey's constitutional court annulled part of the criminal code which classified all sexual acts with children under 15 as sexual abuse. 
 
 Turkish child brides 
 
 440,000 girls under the age of 18 have become mothers since 2002, 15,937 of them below the age of 15 
 
 Child abuse cases have tripled in the past 10 years, during which time 438,000 underage girls have been married 
 
 Source: Turkish justice ministry 
 
 Elif Shafak, one of Turkey's best-selling novelists, explained the concern over the bill. 
 
 "One of the main weaknesses of this draft is that word, consent," she told the BBC. 
 
 "What does that mean? We're talking about children here. So if the rapist negotiates with the family, if he bribes or threatens the family, the family can easily withdraw, you know, their complaint and they can say OK there was a consent and there was no force involved." 
 
 But Ravza Kavakci Kan, an AKP MP, said the bill had been misunderstood. 
 
 'This is a kid': Turkish social media reaction compiled by BBC Monitoring 
 
 There is a palpable sense of relief among opponents of the bill on Turkey's social media. The hashtag #Thisisakid has been trending, with some posting pictures of children smiling and playing. 
 
 "As long as there is solidarity among women, we are powerful," said one tweet. "This is it!" said another. "Withdrawing the bill has eased the public's conscience. We need to be logical, not stubborn." 
 
 Others point out that the government only backed down because President Erdogan had asked for parliamentary consensus over the bill. Addressing the government, a user said: "You should have listened to the people, and not wait for the president to interfere." 
 
 But the debate is not over as some want the bill to be dropped entirely. "What does it mean it is withdrawn?" asked one tweeter. "It should not be brought back to parliament again." 
 
 "The fight should continue until this law is shelved indefinitely," another person tweeted. "They should apologise to all women and children." 
 
 "It is about giving normality to young women who have been married underage due to cultural norms, other norms, and now find themselves with their children suffering because their husbands are in prison," she told the BBC's Newsday programme. 
 
 "One of the examples is when the woman is 15 and the man is 17, they get married, they're both underage, a few years later after they've had children, or when they go to register their babies, or when they go to the doctor, the doctors or officials have to report this case if it is an underage marriage, so now they are 24, 25 and all of a sudden their husbands are in prison."
– Thousands of people took to the streets in cities across Turkey over the weekend to protest what they described as a law that allows child rape. The proposed law pardons men convicted of statutory rape if there was no "force, threat, or any other restriction on consent" and they married the victim, reports the BBC. "A rape can't be justified," said a protester in Istanbul, adding: "What does it mean to ask a child if they're OK? Until they're 18, a child remains a child, that is why this has to be condemned. We are here so that this law can't pass." The ruling Justice and Development Party says the law, which will affect around 3,000 families from between 2005 and this year, is an effort to deal with the problem of child marriage, the AP reports. "In the past there were people who were not aware of the law," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. "The fathers have ended up in prison. This is a one-time measure to correct an unjust situation. It is an important problem." But critics—including the United Nations' Children's Fund—believe it will only worsen the problems of child sexual abuse and underage marriage. (Virginia finally banned child marriage this year.)