Istanbul: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday urged Turkish women to have at least three children, saying a woman’s life was “incomplete” if she failed to have offspring. Erdogan’s comments were the latest in a series of controversial remarks aimed at encouraging women to help boost Turkey’s population, which had already risen exponentially in the last years.
The president emphasised he was a strong supporter of women with careers but emphasised that this should not be an “obstacle” to having children. “Rejecting motherhood means giving up on humanity,” Mr Erdogan said in a speech marking the opening of the new building of Turkey’s Women’s and Democracy Association.
“I would recommend having at least three children,” he said. “The fact that a woman is attached to her professional life should not prevent her from being a mother,” said the president.
