'Let them cry out for miniskirts,' Turkish President Erdo?an slams critics

Miniskirts have once again become cannon fodder in Turkey?s culture war, with President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an personally diving into the issue during a speech on Feb. 25.

?Let them cry out for low-cut [tops] and miniskirts,? Erdo?an said during a ceremony in Ankara for the inauguration of dormitories owned by the Service for Youth and Education Foundation of Turkey (TÜRGEV), vowing to ?raise generations loyal to their beliefs and history.?

The president?s son, Bilal Erdo?an, is among the board members of TÜRGEV, a charity nongovernmental organization.

On Feb. 21, a group of men organized a protest in Istanbul, wearing miniskirts, to demonstrate against patriarchy and in memory of slain 20-year-old student Özgecan Aslan.

The burned body of Aslan was discovered on Feb. 13 in a riverbed in the southern Turkish province of Mersin, triggering a public debate in which a women?s supposedly ?provocative? attire has been cited as a reason for sexual assault and harassment by some conservative voices.

On Feb. 25, Erdo?an continued slamming "skirt-wearing men" while hosting an umbrella group of small- and medium-sized businesses at the presidential palace.

"They call themselves 'men.' What men? Men wear trousers, but they wear skirts. They hide themselves," he said, drawing a parallel between skirts and masks. "Why do you wear a mask, if you are not a terrorist?" he asked.

While repeating that the murder of Aslan was ?total savagery," Erdo?an kept up with his uncompromising tone, criticizing not only the secular opposition, but also the followers of the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, his ally-turned-nemesis.

Slamming the whole opposition

Erdo?an, who as head of state is supposed to be...