Turkish women receive mixed messages on work-life balance
Officials from Turkey's Justice and Development Party have made a habit of issuing controversial social edicts to women that don't apply to their wives and daughters.
On Jan. 1, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu welcomed the first baby of 2015 with news cameras rolling. Muezzinoglu made instant headlines by saying, “Mothers have the career of motherhood, which cannot be possessed by anyone else in the world. Mothers should not put a career other than motherhood at the center of their lives.” Looking right into the eyes of female hospital staff, he said, “Motherhood should be women’s sole career.”
The strongest reaction to the minister's words came from Gulten Kisanak, the mayor of Diyarbakir and a member of the People’s Democracy Party (HDP). She said, “Dear women, let us promise we will build the strongest career by toppling [the AKP’s] tyranny.”
