Saturday, January 3, 2015

A GIANT LOL: Turkish Health Minister Claims "A Mothers’ Career Should Be Motherhood"

1/3/2015

ANKARA – Mothers have their work cut out for them being mothers and should not go looking for work outside the home, Turkey’s health minister has said, echoing recent remarks by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish newspapers reported Friday feminists were up in arms at statements by Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu during a Jan. 1 visit to congratulate the parents of the first baby born in 2015 in Istanbul, according to the Dogan news agency.

“Mothers have the career of motherhood, which cannot be possessed by anyone else in the world. Mothers should not put another career other than motherhood at the center of their lives. They should make raising good generations the center of their attention.”

The minister also urged mothers to have normal deliveries rather than resorting to a Caesarean section. “Nearly 1.1 million babies are born every year. This is a huge source of richness for our country,” he added.

A set of organizations defending women rights have criticized the minister’s statements, stressing that his words expose the ruling party’s vision on the role of women in society.

Other women, such as writer Elif Safak, have criticized Muezzinoglu on the social networks. “Motherhood is not a career. Turkish women should decide their own paths in life, not male politicians from above,” Safak wrote on her Twitter account.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has consistently exhorted women to have at least three children, while also calling abortion “murder” and railing against Caesarian sections.

Erdogan recently sparked criticism after describing birth control as an act of “treason” aimed at weakening Turkey. He has claimed women and men cannot be equal because they have different “natures and bodies” and accused feminists of being against the concept of motherhood.”


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