Fatma Salman Kotan

Abstract is: Fatma Salman Kotan (born 1970) is a Turkish accountant, politician and Member of Parliament for Ağrı representing Justice and Development Party. She is a graduate of economics from Atatürk University in Erzurum. Speaking at the Turkish Women Entrepreneurs Association in August 2007 she gave her life story as follows:My mother was my father's second wife. In our part of the world if a man is rich he will marry more than once. My mother died because of my father's pressure in her to have a son. I was the second child. The doctors told my mother it would be dangerous to have a third but my mother told us she had to make my father Sheikh Ahmet Salman happy, to continue his line by having a son. The doctors said it would be fatal to get pregnant but she didn't listen. Only a boy would make Sheikh Ahmet Salman happy. So my mother got pregnant for a third time and bore another girl. Two years later my mother died. Ever since my childhood I have had it in my mind that not only a man can carry on the family of Sheikh Ahmet Salman, but a woman can too. That's why I was the first girl in my family to go to school. I went into politics and business. I knew that if I could make it i would be an inspiration to other women. By opening a brick factory in the area i showed that a woman could work in the dust and the mud. Now the number of women working in the area is increasing. (but) if we don't break down the patriarchy a little more Turkey will still be the same in 2007 as it was in 1970.