Turkey's President Erdogan Calls Women Who Work 'Half Persons'

Women who choose careers over motherhood are trailblazers in some parts of the world. But in Turkey they're "deficient" — at least according to the nation's president.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's declaration that such women were "half persons" is the latest in a series of remarks by the leader of a key U.S. ally that has sparked outrage and fear among liberals and human rights activists, who allege he's leading the country down a path to conservative Islam.

"A woman who abstains from maternity by saying 'I am working' means that she is actually denying her femininity," Erdogan said in a widely reported speech in Istanbul on Sunday.

"A woman who refuses maternity and gives up housekeeping faces the threats of losing her freedom. She is lacking and is a half [a person] no matter how successful she is in the business world," he said according to excepts of the speech translated by the Hurriyet Daily News newspaper.

"Turkey's AKP government has, over the years, increased their statements against women," she told NBC News via email. "They are openly questioning secularism. If secularism is destroyed and a religious order is introduced, there is no doubt in my mind that we women have much more to lose than men."

The country, an essential Western partner in containing the Syrian civil war and the flood of refugees that it has unleashed, was seeing a "systematic backlash against women's rights and liberties," Shafak added.

"His discriminatory discourse against women's identity is actually a reflection of his radical views," she said. "This is part of the larger plan of transforming the society into a more Islamist direction. Creating a new 'norm' for women is indeed an essential part of this transformation."

Meral added that Erdogan is shoring up his conservative and nationalist base in order to push major constitutional changes to create a presidential system of government. These changes will require a strong majority and motivated support base.

With Turkey's economy moving from an agricultural economy to a more industrial one, and its population migrating in greater numbers to cities, it is only natural that birth rates are falling as they have around the world, he said.

This demographic bubble terrifies nationalist Turks like Erdogan who fear greater Kurdish power and influence could lead to the country eventually splitting up along ethnic lines, according to Hakura.

"To have a leader who is frankly sexist making a lot of anti-female comments along the way for years now is quite concerning," she said. "If we look at them beyond the comments about reproductive health, reproductive rights — it is about equality."

For Shafak, Erdogan's latest comments were a call to action: "If we do not speak up now, tomorrow we might lose even the rights that we take for granted today."