Erdogan highlights importance of women's role in society at int'l summit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has highlighted the significance of the role of women in society at an international summit hosted by an Istanbul-based women's advocacy group.

“A world where women are excluded means that half of humanity has been renounced,” Erdogan said on Friday addressing an international summit on women and justice organized every two years.

"We believe that it is not possible to achieve results for the good of humanity or to make them sustainable in any arena where women are not involved," he added.

The two-day conference was hosted by the Istanbul-based women's advocacy group the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) together with the Family and Social Services Ministry.

"Today, the same woman model is imposed on societies all over the world, and women are asked to adopt and play the same political, social, cultural, and economic role so that every other cultural behaviour is subject to a global lynching," Erdogan said.

Erdogan also pointed out that developed countries have "problems such as violence against women and murder, contrary to the image they give to the outside."

READ MORE: Erdogan pledges judicial transparency, women protections in new rights plan

'Cultural codes and women'

The theme of the fifth International Women and Justice Summit this year is “cultural codes and women.”

Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan attended the opening ceremony, and Family and Social Services Minister Derya Yanik and KADEM head Saliha Okur Gumrukcuoglu also addressed the event.

As part of the event, a session will be hosted by the ministry with the participation of ministers from different countries, including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Libya, Palestine, and Singapore.

Among the participants at the event are Fatima Gailani, Afghan politician and influential women’s rights activist, Sultana Tafadar, the UK’s first headscarved criminal lawyer and advisor to the King of England, Nazma Khan, who founded a global movement called “World Hijab Day,” award-winning Syrian director Waad al Kateab, and journalist and filmmaker Rizwana Hamid.

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