Her bag according to bad tongues must have cost around 45,000 euros. Made of crocodile leather with a gold buckle from a well-known French fashion house. The wife of Mr Erdogan caused a stir about her expensive habits when she appeared with the bag in hand in 2019 at the meeting of the G 20, the world’s most powerful and emerging economies, in Osaka, Japan, alongside her husband. When the Emine Erdogan again accompanied her husband on a trip to Brussels, Belgian media reported that many shops were closed to mere mortals so that Turkey’s first lady could do her shopping undisturbed. In fact, the British “Daily Mail” described her as “addicted to shopping”.

Feminicides increased

Mrs. Emine Erdogan certainly does not represent the average woman in Turkey, who does not have the resources to buy even one of the elegant headscarves with which she covers her head. The modern woman in Turkey is fighting to claim rights that are taken for granted for women of the same sex in other countries. One of the stakes of these elections is the improvement of women’s rights in a society that is at least officially considered secular. But under Erdogan, the clock has turned back, and if he is re-elected, women’s organizations fear that he will remove the last bulwarks against violence against women in the example of Law 6284, the last legislative weapon to protect them after Turkey’s withdrawal from the Convention of Istanbul of the Council of Europe, with the object of protecting women from domestic violence. The decision raised concerns given the increasing number of murders of women in Turkey. Last year alone, nearly 400 women were murdered, according to the women’s rights group We Will Stop Femicide Platform. The prosecution wants to ban the platform because it violates “law and morality.”

“Under his government the number of murders of women is increasing every yearsays team member Fidan Ataselim. Ultraconservatives in Erdogan’s coalition argue that the Istanbul Convention harms family unity and promotes LGBTQ rights. Erdogan has attacked the opposition several times during the election campaign for supporting the LGBTQ movement. “We are against LGBTQI“, he said. Pulling out of the convention marked a change of course for Erdogan. The convention had been negotiated and even signed in Istanbul in 2011. Turkey was the first country to ratify it the following year. Of course, it was different years then and Turkish Prime Minister they described themselves as moderate conservative.

Gender equality ‘against nature’

But when in 2012 Erdogan equalized her abortion the killing sparked protests that forced his government to withdraw the abortion ban it had planned to legislate. “He was forced to step back after angry protests“, recalls Ataselim. But now the problem is that few doctors dare to perform abortions, This is especially true for public hospitals, which are subject to stricter government controls. “In addition, due to the economic crisis from 2021, it is more difficult for women from lower incomes to access contraceptives and personal hygiene productssays Beryl Hepgonkali of the women’s rights group Mor Dayanisma (Purple Solidarity). Erdogan and high-ranking representatives of the ruling AKP often make openly sexist statements. In 2014 the president declared that equality between men and women was “against nature”. In the same year the deputy prime minister declared that women should not laugh out loud in public. “The government is increasingly trying to interfere in all aspects of women’s lives, from clothes to lifestyle to laughter“, complains Hepgonkali. “Our right to exist as equal citizens and free individuals is constantly under threatBerin Semnez from the feminist platform Esik also says.

And to return to the elegant headscarf of the always well-made-up lady Emine, Erdogan lifted the ban in 2013 in public places and state institutions, thus enabling religious women to study at universities and enter the professional arena. Today, the Turkish president in yet another confrontation with Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who is calling for freedom of women’s clothing through law, called for a referendum so that the people can express themselves and participate in decision-making. More generally, however, Erdogan appears as a protector of Muslims against the secular elites that largely determined Turkish politics in the 20th century. “Considerable progress has been made in this area“, admits Senmez. “Today religious and secular women work together in feminist organizations». Of course, all this leaves the president’s wife coldly indifferent, who even in the pre-election campaign appears by his side, elegantly dressed, with make-up, smiling and speechless.