GENDER HYPOCRISY

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has caused uproar with his statement that equality between men and women is against the laws of nature. What is more, the politician announced this in no other place then at a conference on women's rights held in Istanbul.

"Men and women have different constitution; their ways of life are also different. A pregnant woman cannot work on a par with a man, as was the case in some countries during the communist era," said the head of Turkey explaining his position.

According to Erdogan, the main mission of representatives of the fair sex is to be a mother rather than to "dig earth", as this rough work is against women's delicate nature. The Turkish president also spoke negatively about feminists who do not understand high status of motherhood that a woman can achieve in an Islamic society. "I would kiss my mother's feet. Women do not need equality, they need respect rendered to them on an equal footing with men," Erdogan summed up his opinion and noted that every woman should give birth to at least three children.

Erdogan was immediately accused of sexist rhetoric, trying to enforce Islamic norms in Turkish society and intention to violate the principles of a secular state established on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. Turkish lawyer and women's rights activist Hulya Gulbahar said that the president's statement was in violation of the country's constitution and international conventions on gender equality. "Such comments by state officials which disregard equality between men and women contribute to the rise of violence against women," Gulbahar believes.

Back in 2012, Erdogan, the then prime minister, called abortion "murder" and also opposed caesarean births. Furthermore, not so long ago, Bulent Arinc, the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and a party associate of Erdogan, caused outrage of women's organizations because of his criticism of women's laughter in public, which is, in his opinion, against the norms of Islam.

According to the 2013 gender inequality index of the World Economic Forum, which includes economic, political and educational criteria, Turkey was ranked 120th among 136 countries. In its September report, the Human Rights Watch noted that the perpetrators of violence against women - mostly husbands, partners, ex-husbands and family members - often remain unpunished in Turkey, and that in 2012 the authorities failed to enforce the law on protection of women from violence.

The imperial harem in the Topkapi Palace is one of the most visited places in Istanbul located at the crossroads of East and West. However, even though Western female tourists, dressed in shorts and laughing loudly, do sometimes admit that they would not refuse to occasionally escape from the crazy rhythm of life to the "female quarters" of the huge house of the medieval ruler, it is impossible to imagine this kind of life to be the norm of the modern world. The current Turkish leader is wrong in at least one thing - respect, in contrast to equality enshrined in international instruments, cannot be legally guaranteed. To hope that all men, who are in many cases really much stronger and more successful than women, would fully respect representatives of the fair sex is as utopian as communism, with its advocacy of universal equality. That violence against women is alarmingly high even in such countries as the United States and Great Britain, wherefrom feminism originated and where the struggle for women's rights were sharpened, is another thing. According to official UN data, 35 per cent of women around the world are familiar with domestic violence, and this is a huge number.

Following a barrage of criticism in his address, Erdogan made a statement that his words were misinterpreted and that throughout his 40-year political career he was a champion of women's rights. As the Turkish leader explained, he wanted to say that men and women are certainly equal in their value to society and have equal rights, but no one can argue that they are equal in nature, and here we are talking about pure physiology. To this, Erdogan's opponents responded in line with the classical feminist postulate, saying that it is wrong to predetermine the role of an individual in society proceeding only from natural characteristics. For example, there are women who are unable to have children for medical reasons. Will that automatically make them outcasts? It is not uncommon in patriarchal and religious societies that women who are unable to give birth (even through the fault of men) habitually become the target of ridicule and are often driven to a suicide. Moreover, about 130 million women worldwide are subjected to humiliating practices based on gender differences, which in many cases turns their future life into torture. "After all, along with the ability to bear children, women still have brains and spiritual needs," an outraged blogger wrote in Twitter.

In other words, although Erdogan may be right in his own way, his comments still sound like an outright insult to the consciousness of liberal feminists in the West. Meanwhile, how firm is Western society in following its own beliefs? After all, many European and US citizens are apparently quite tolerant to cases where the naked female body is used to draw attention to various social and cultural issues or to achieve certain political goals. At any rate, feminist organizations do not show their indignation in each such instance. Thus, while the Turkish president was speaking in Istanbul, a topless FEMEN activist climbed the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Mother in Strasbourg, France, to protest against … the politicization of the future visit of Pope Francis to the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. "Pope is not a politician" was written on the back of the FEMEN follower, while the inscription on her chest condemned "anti-secular Europe". A few days earlier, girlfriends of the French branch of FEMEN carried out an action at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, explaining it by their rejection of a "direct attack of the Catholic Church on social life in Europe". Half-naked girls knelt down and began to make obscene gestures, holding a crucifix in their hands. Russian President Vladimir Putin is another favourite target, along with the Pope, of half-naked FEMEN protests. The irrepressible girls already boast of many tricks - from a wooden memorial cross cut down in the centre of Kiev to a fuss raised during the municipal elections in Istanbul with the demand to "ban Erdogan". All of the political demands are put forward with activists being half-naked. The movement originated in Ukraine in 2008, and in 2012 its activists were sheltered in France. Interestingly, the people of the country, which legislatively banned the wearing of hijab in certain public places, are not at all perturbed by the fact that FEMEN activists use rather controversial methods to attract attention. A weak protest against the movement, staged by Catholic associations and right-wing forces in February of this year, did not attract much attention, whereas all FEMEN actions receive wide coverage in the media, which means that girls clearly achieve their goals over and over again. Notably, these "sextremists" have their own website, individual pages in social networks, even an online shop, and actually finance a training courses for new activists.

By the way, Russia has its own FEMEN activists. All of us remember a scandal caused by members of the Pussy Riot punk band, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, which in February 2012 made a "punk prayer" at the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and then were imprisoned by the decision of a Russian court. Prior to this notorious action, which became known all over the world, the girls had already participated in a number of other performances including in public sex in a zoological (Darwinian) museum, with one of the performers, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, being at the ninth month of pregnancy at the time. The activists called themselves supporters of "politicized feminism", and Amnesty International recognized the arrested Pussy Riot participants "prisoners of conscience". Concern about the fate of Pussy Riot was raised at the level of the US State Department, PACE and international artists such as Paul McCartney, Madonna and Sting. After serving their sentences, Alekhina and Tolokonnikova stopped being "punks" and became "human rights activist" and as such, they are now travelling around the world. 

By the way, the Pope was not scared by half-naked girls and delivered his speech in the European Parliament, criticizing the European Union for its bureaucracy, departure from the great ideals, for hedonism and dependence on the economy, for consumption-bent society with no room left for care for the person. Violence against women and denigration of their place in society and history can surely be brought into line with diseases of the 21st century. The role of the so-called weaker sex has been and will continue to be different, depending on the cultural context, but women's rights are reflected in international instruments and can not be challenged. What can and should be challenged are double standards in upholding these rights. Somehow, it is not logical and honest to be indignant at politicians who believe that women should be forbidden to laugh in public, and at the same time to admire political slogans daubed on naked female breasts.

At least, Erdogan's words have once again drawn attention to this problem. There is no escape from the physiological differences between men and women - in saying this, the Turkish president has been right many times over, as mannish women and effeminate men will simply bring the human race to extinction. However, it is not physiology that makes us different, but economic circumstances, prejudices, and different intellectual and spiritual levels.