Image copyright EPA Image caption Protesters chanted: "We will not shut up! We will not obey!" 
 
 Thousands have protested in Istanbul in Turkey against a bill that would let off men who assaulted underage girls if they marry their victims. 
 
 The government insists the legislation is aimed at dealing with the widespread custom of child marriage, but critics say that it will legitimise child rape. 
 
 Protesters clapped and chanted: "We will not shut up. We will not obey. Withdraw the bill immediately!" 
 
 There were demonstrations in other cities including Izmir and Trabzon. 
 
 The law would allow the release of men who assaulted a minor without "force, threat, or any other restriction on consent" and married the victim. 
 
 About 3,000 protesters gathered in Istanbul's Kadikoy square, according to reports. 
 
 Some waved banners with slogans such as "Rape cannot be legitimised" and "AKP, take your hands off my body" - referring to the AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which introduced the bill. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Protest signs read "Rape cannot be legitimised!" 
 
 "A rape can't be justified," protester Fadik Temizyurek told the BBC. 
 
 She said: "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." 
 
 Kadir Demir, a father, said: "I am here because I listen to my consciousness. Because I have children, because of my children. Because I desire to live in a country where we can still live." 
 
 Women in Turkey 
 
 Another protester, Cigdem Evcil, said: "I am a mother. How am I supposed to react to this? I can`t believe it, it's not normal, it doesn't make sense. 
 
 "This morning when I woke up I heard the news on TV and I've called my daughter maybe 50 times since. 
 
 "If I let this happen to my daughter, if the mothers in this country let this happen, it means we are not mothers." 
 
 Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told a Nato meeting on Friday in the city that the bill would not pardon rapists. 
 
 He said: "The bill will certainly not bring amnesty to rapists.... This is a step taken to solve a problem in some parts of our country." 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The UN said it was "deeply concerned" about the bill 
 
 Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has reportedly ordered his AKP colleagues to hold talks with the opposition on the bill. 
 
 The bill was approved in an initial parliamentary reading on Thursday and will be voted on again in a second debate on Tuesday. 
 
 The UN children's fund said it was "deeply concerned" about the bill. 
 
 "These abject forms of violence against children are crimes which should be punished as such, and in all cases the best interest of the child should prevail," said spokesman Christophe Boulierac. 
 
 The bill follows a previous controversy after Turkey's constitutional court in July annulled part of the criminal code which classified all sexual acts with children under 15 as sexual abuse. ||||| 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.
– 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.)