Turkish president Erdoğan has accused feminists of having “nothing to do with our religion and civilisation”.

Turkish president Erdoğan once again targeted feminists in his speech yesterday on the murder of Özgecan Aslan, who was brutally killed by 3 men in Mersin on 14 February, saying “these feminists have nothing to do with our religion and civilisation”, referring to women's organizations that held protests across the city in the wake of the savage murder of the 20-year-old university student.

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan talked about the murder of Özgecan Aslan in his second meeting in a month with the mukhtars (headmen of neighbourhoods) in his “White Palace”. Erdoğan first criticised the chair of the main opposition party CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who said on Feb. 15 that poor socio-economic conditions were one of the main causes of violence against women, accusing the AKP of causing social collapse. Erdoğan responded to Kılıçdaroğlu, saying: “Can unemployment justify villainy?, He had a job, in fact. The killer is a minibus driver. He is not unemployed. This man is playing politics even on such an issue”.

 Erdoğan then directed anger against a woman deputy from the CHP, Aylin Nazlıaka, who joined the women’s activity of dancing to raise awareness about violence against women in the framework of the 1 billion rising activity, and said: “And his lawmakers are dancing, nearly celebrating. Can something like this happen? We pray for the victim in our culture.”

He then targeted feminists who criticised Erdoğan for his words: “women are entrusted to men”, and said: “These feminists, they say, ‘how can women be entrusted to men? This is an insult.’ Well, you have nothing to do with our religion and civilization. We are looking at the words of our prophet. He says ‘Women are entrusted by God. Respect and do not harm them’”.