Career women are half-persons, Erdogan says ‘sincerely’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says women who trade their maternal and housekeeping responsibilities for a career are "deficient" and "incomplete."

“A woman who abstains from maternity by saying ‘I am working’ means that she is actually denying her femininity. This is my sincere thought,” said Erdogan during the opening ceremony of the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) in Istanbul, the Independent reported on Monday   

“The fact that a woman is attached to her professional life should not prevent her from being a mother," he added.

After noting that Ankara had implemented considerable measures to encourage maternity during his prime ministry, he recommended that couples have at least three children.

Since May 2015, Turkey has disbursed 450 million Turkish liras ($152.2 million) in government incentive payments to increase the country’s birth rate. 

“A woman who refuses maternity and gives up housekeeping faces the threats of losing her freedom. She is lacking and is a half [a person] no matter how successful she is in the business world,” he stressed.

Encouraging the population growth in Turkey, he said, “Strong families lead to strong nations," adding that “every member of the nation should be mobilized” towards "great goals".

Erdogan’s remarks are the latest in a series of statements on procreation and curtailing abortion practices that have provoked controversy among his critics.

Last week, he sparked a scandal by speaking against contraception and urging women to ensure the country’s population growth.

"I will say it clearly... We need to increase the number of our descendants… And in this respect the first duty belongs to mothers," he said during a speech in Istanbul.

In March, he said that “I know there will be some who will be annoyed, but for me a woman is above all a mother…You cannot free women by destroying the notion of family.”

In 2014, he declared engagement in birth control efforts “treason” against the country, because such policies could risk “drying up” a whole generation.

Erdogan and his wife Emine have five grandchildren from two of their children. His elder daughter, Esra, and her husband, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, have three children, while Erdogan’s third child, Necmettin Bilal, and his wife, Reyyan Uzuner, have two children. The president’s eldest son, Ahmet Burak, has no children despite being married since 2001. His younger daughter, Sumeyye, married defense industrialist Selcuk Bayraktar earlier this month.

According to World Bank data, Turkey’s population has risen about 20 percent since 2003, when Erdogan was elected to his first of three terms as prime minister.  The country’s population currently stands at about 79.5 million. 

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