President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized women who “abstain from” being a mother, accusing them of “refusing their femininity,” and calling them “incomplete,” during an inauguration held at the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) building on Sunday.
“Women’s position in business life should not prevent her from being a mother. Women who abstain from being mothers due to their jobs are refusing their femininity. If a woman refuses to be a mother and abstains from managing her house, she is incomplete, no matter how successful she is in her job,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also gave a speech during the 20th foundation anniversary of TÜRGEV last week, saying that Muslim families cannot support practices such as birth control and family planning.
“I say this clearly, we will boost our population, increase [the number of individuals in] our generation. No Muslim family can support practices such as birth control and family planning. We will obey whatever our God and Prophet says,” Erdoğan said.
In December 2014, Erdoğan gave a speech during at wedding and urged the newly married couple to have at least three children to help boost Turkey’s population figures. He added that birth control is a form of “treason” because it “threatens” country’s bloodline.