The way he [
Recep Tayyip Erdogan] speaks: he makes them [women] fragile with his messages, whether subliminal or explicit. There is a certain way, he says, of being a woman: you have to be a mother and at home, and that's all. When you see a man, you should blush and look down. It's like something from the middle ages. The subtext is that women are only seen as sexual. That's why they must cover every inch of their skin. This is dangerous because it generates more violence against them, it makes it OK for men to act like assailants. Rapes happen everywhere, but in Turkey women come out on to the streets to protest because such attacks only seem to echo what the government is saying. [May 2016]
