“The hearts of those fascists, from the autocratic era, were not moved even by tears of women not allowed into schools and workplaces,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday as he spoke about injustices toward women in the past.
He was addressing the Women’s Labor Summit, organized by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), an event that commemorates the party’s efforts to increase women's employment across the country.
The president hailed reforms for women by the AK Party, which helped the country overcome what he described as “Those days of oppression against women." He was referring to a process before and after the notorious 1997 coup, a time of suppression of women's rights and the outlawing of the headscarf. Erdoğan himself was a victim of the process, facing political oppression besides being forced to remove his children from school.
“You remember what one of those former leaders told a lawmaker in a headscarf as she was taking the oath? He told other lawmakers she should show her real worth. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) is associated with this mindset. Do you dare to show lawmakers their worth now?” said the president to thunderous applause. He was referring to an infamous incident in 1999 where Merve Kavakçı, who would be Türkiye’s first headscarf-wearing lawmaker, faced strict opposition from then-Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, who made the controversial remarks during a parliamentary session as Kavakçı prepared to take oath for office.
The president hailed women’s role in AK Party’s victories since the early 2000s and said that any political movement excluding women is doomed to disappear from the political scene. He also spoke about a constitutional amendment on headscarves. The main opposition, the CHP, revived the issue of headscarves earlier this month, announcing planned legislation amid efforts by the secularist party to reach out to conservative Turks, among whom the CHP has traditionally had little support. The CHP seeks an amendment for allowing women in headscarves to work freely in the public sector, years after the AK Party, under Erdoğan, had lifted the ban. “This reminded us of the bad old days. We proposed to them to bring a constitutional amendment to the table, but nobody replied to our proposal. So, we presented the proposal to Parliament by ourselves,” Erdoğan said.
