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Don't flirt or hold hands, top Turkey clerics tell soon-to-weds

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Dont flirt or hold hands, top Turkey clerics tell soon-to-weds

Istanbul - Turkey's religious affairs agency set the limits for those who plan to tie the knot.

By AFP

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Published: Mon 4 Jan 2016, 4:52 PM

Last updated: Mon 4 Jan 2016, 6:56 PM

Engaged couples should refrain from flirting, holding hands and "other behaviours that are not endorsed by Islam," Turkey's religious affairs agency declared on Monday.
Answering the question "is it appropriate for those who are engaged to be married to be able to see each other?", the agency, known as Diyanet, set out where the limits lay for those who plan to tie the knot in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey.
"There is no harm in engaged couples meeting to get to know each other, as long as they follow the rules of privacy," it said in a statement on its website.
"But engaged couples need to refrain from flirting, living together, staying together tete-a-tete in a way that could give rise to gossip, holding hands and other behaviours that are not endorsed by Islam," it added.
While many Turks embrace European lifestyles in Istanbul, the Aegean coast and Ankara, traditional Islamic values hold sway in much of the country.
Turkey's religious affairs agency Diyanet was established in 1924 to oversee religion in the modern secular Turkish Republic following the abolition of the Islamic Caliphate in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
One of its duties enshrined in the constitution is to enlighten the public about religious values.
It frequently issues directives on advice about moral behaviour. But in the officially secular state these have no legal weight.


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