Emine Erdoğan emphasized the importance of “women” at the International Awareness Summit.

Emine Erdoğan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stated in her speech at the ‘International Awareness Summit’, “We have laid the foundations of a strong legal and administrative infrastructure that secures the rights of our women and strengthens their position in social life. Every day, new topics and new improving regulations are being added on top of this foundation.”

The second ‘IAS International Awareness Summit’ organized by the Independent Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD) was held at the MÜSİAD Headquarters this year. The program was attended by Emine Erdoğan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, Afyonkarahisar Governor Assoc. Dr. Kübra Güran Yiğitbaşı, KADEM Foundation Board Chair Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar, TOGEMDER President Belma Sekmen, African Culture House President Zeliha Sağlam, as well as some chamber presidents and deputies. In the panel held as a result of the program, the participants shared their life stories with those in attendance. A plaque ceremony was held for the authors Alev Alatlı, Prof. Dr. Ümit Meriç, Prof. Dr. Nurhan Atasoy, and BAYKAR Board Member, financial manager Canan Bayraktar, who were awarded the Awareness Awards at the summit. Erdoğan presented the plaques to Meriç and Bayraktar, while the award for the late Alatlı was given to her daughter Funda Aktan, and Atasoy’s award, who could not attend the ceremony due to health issues, was presented to Günseli Kato.

On the other hand, speaking at the program, Emine Erdoğan congratulated MÜSİAD Women for organizing this summit aimed at raising awareness across all segments globally. The program concluded with a photo session for remembrance.

In the program, Emine Erdoğan noted that women face various challenges in professional life, highlighting the doors they struggle to open and the barriers they cannot overcome. She mentioned that women experience inequality in labor force participation from the very beginning and are then devalued with unfair working conditions in professional life.

Emphasizing the need for permanent and transformative solutions to the problems faced by women, Erdoğan stated, “With this thought, we have made reformative regulations in Turkey in the last 20 years. We have laid the foundations of a strong legal and administrative infrastructure that secures the rights of our women and strengthens their position in social life. Every day, new topics and new improving regulations are being added on top of this foundation.”

Emine Erdoğan explained that women’s presence in production life with their intellect, intelligence, personality, and values is a necessity of justice and fairness. She underscored that empowering women with high empathy, emotional understanding, and management skills is the key to a fairer and more livable world, stating, “For real empowerment, a holistic and balance-focused approach that encompasses all roles of women in life is required. Women can certainly take on many responsibilities and quickly adapt to different situations and conditions with their inherent versatility and ability to adapt. The key word here is the balance between these various roles.”

“Women’s labor is only evaluated through titles”

Erdoğan expressed that women contribute to every aspect, saying, “When the issues of women in working life are discussed today, the extraordinary efforts and contradictions faced by women, who are ‘tossed’ between home and work under the name of ‘equality’, are overlooked. On the other hand, women’s labor is only evaluated through titles and labor force participation. However, in our culture, women are producers whether they are plowing the field, raising a child, or maintaining the family. There is women’s labor in every bowl of soup we are presented, in the lace on our clothing, in the patterns on our carpets, and in every prayer said for us. From this perspective, protecting the labor of all our women, providing supportive mechanisms for women who want to embrace their other roles while producing has been our greatest effort throughout our governments. The home care support, maternity leave regulations, and nursery support implemented during the AK Party period are the results of these efforts. At this point, our women can be a strong mother and a strong wife in family life without losing that role while being a key player in social development. With their achievements in the production sector, they form the locomotive of our country’s economy. With their works in the field of science, they accelerate our national technology movement,” she stated.

Erdoğan remarked that when women are allowed to exist in all areas of life with their nature, a world based on justice and balance will emerge, noting that therefore, flexible applications for women’s family life should be a priority across all sectors.

“It is possible to understand the quality of a society by looking at the power of women”

Emine Erdoğan said, “The Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations particularly focus on the social dimensions of development. Women are the fundamental elements of the family institution, which raises future generations and is the fortress of our social values, and they are also the locomotive force of social development. Improving women’s health, safety, education, economic empowerment, and general quality of life is one of the top social policy priorities of states. It is possible to understand the quality of a society by looking at the power of women. The foundation of our civilization is also the cooperation between men and women. Throughout our history, women have been alongside men in every field, from state administration to education, from culture to social life. I see the distinguished community before me as the bearer of this thousands of years of experience, wisdom, and Anatolian spirit. The stories of women who do great work in many fields, from science to academia, from art to commerce, while embracing their natural roles will guide new generations like a polar star,” she spoke.

Gave advice to the youth

Erdoğan advised the youth to learn about the lives and ideas of those awarded the Awareness Awards during the summit, saying, “Alev Alatlı, a precious thinker who breaks the chains imposed on our thought and heart world with her words, is an invaluable example for our youth. Canan Bayraktar, one of the first women computer programmers in Turkey, who has worked in this field and is currently working in finance at one of the world’s leading defense industry companies, embodies values and achieves success while embracing her roles in family life, serving as an inspiration for all women.”

Erdoğan stated that MÜSİAD Women has addressed all issues related to women in the business world fairly since its establishment and has implemented many qualified projects for this purpose, thanking the association for their contributions to the Zero Waste Movement with the ‘Transformation Begins at Home, Education Begins with Mother’ project.

“Palestinian women keep our hope for a more livable world alive”

Touching on the importance of women in building the future, Erdoğan stated, “As the world we have is gradually falling apart with the values of humanity, we need women’s sensitivity, intuition, and compassion more than ever. We cannot build the world of the future that we would agree for our children to live in without the touch of women. Despite all the destruction and losses, Palestinian women, who rebuild life every day with the means they have, keep our hope for a more livable world alive.”