Spare Wives from Morocco

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 5 January 2011)

In Mardin, ethnic Arab men who meet Moroccan women on the
internet are bringing them to Turkey as second wives. Gökçe and
Ortaköy towns are in the forefront of this movement. Halit Öncel
was the first in Gökçe to bring a second Moroccan wife. Already
married and with 11 children, Öncel met Monia on the internet,
divorced his wife and married Monia, who had four years of
training in a religious school after finishing high school and speaks
French fluently. Quite a number of married men in Gökçe and
Ortaköy have followed the path blazed by Öncel. The number of
internet cafes in Gökçe has increased from one to three and
Morrocan wives have doubled from 15 to 30 over the past year.
There were no Morrocan wives in Ortaköy but now there are
10. Twenty four of the Morrocan wives are 'kuma', or second
wives.

Aziza Eroğlu is one of the Moroccan women who have come to
Mardin as 'kuma', despite the fact that she is a university graduate
and French teacher. The young woman, who taught in a kinder-
garten in Rabat and who knows English too, is married to
Iskender Eroğlu of Gökçe. Eroğlu was living with his first wife,
whom he had never officially married, so he said that he had no
problem marrying Aziza, who is seven months pregnant. Jamila,
who is married to Samir Bozdağ, was the first Morrocan girl to
come to Mardin already married. She and Bozdağ met over the
internet and were married in Morocco. Jamila speaks French
and Spanish fluently and is two months pregnant.