Women are not equal to men and cannot be treated equally because it "is against human nature," according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke out Monday against feminists in Turkey.
Feminists reject the concept of motherhood, Erdogan said while speaking at a justice for women summit in Istanbul, using Islam to justify his controversial beliefs, reported AFP.
"Our religion [Islam] has defined a position for women: motherhood," the president said to an audience of mainly women, which included his daughter Sumeyye, according to AFP.
"Some people can understand this, while others can't. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don't not accept the concept of motherhood."
According to Erdogan, women and men cannot be treated equally "because it is against human nature."
"Their characters, habits and physiques are different...You cannot place a mother breastfeeding her baby on an equal footing with men," he said.
"You cannot get women to do every kind of work men can do, as in communist regimes. You cannot tell them to go out and dig the soil. This is against their delicate nature."
He spoke of a time when, in Anatolian Turkey villages, women had done all the work while men wasted away the time.
"Wasn't it the case in Anatolia? Our poor mothers suffered immensely and got hunchbacks while the men were playing cards and rolling dice at teahouses," Erdogan said.
"What women need is to be able to be equivalent, rather than equal. Because equality turns the victim into an oppressor and vice versa."
Critics such as Aylin Nazliaka, a member of Turkish parliament from the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, said the president committed a hate crime by ostracizing women when he portrayed them as "delicate," "weak" and "powerless" individuals whose role should be limited to motherhood, reported AFP.
"Erdogan has publicly committed a hate crime... But I will continue to fight this man who sees no difference between terrorists and feminists," Nazliaka wrote in a statement.
Feminists have also spoken out against Erdogan for his belief that women in Turkey should each have three children and be restricted from having abortions, access to the morning-after pill and Caesarian sections.
Others in the government have spoken negatively about women as well. In July, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said women should not laugh loudly in public.
"A man should be moral but women should be moral as well, they should know what is decent and what is not decent," Arinc said in a speech, reported the Guardian.
"She should not laugh loudly in front of all the world and should preserve her decency at all times."
