Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused feminists of not understanding the special status that Islam attributes to mothers

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has set off a new controversy, declaring that women are not equal to men and accusing feminists of not understanding the special status that Islam attributes to mothers.

Addressing a meeting Monday in Istanbul on women and justice, Erdogan said men and women are created differently, that women cannot be expected to undertake the same work as men, and that mothers enjoy a high position that only they can reach.

He said: 'You cannot put women and men on an equal footing. It is against nature. They were created differently. Their nature is different. Their constitution is different.'

Erdogan told the audience of Turkish women - which included his own daughter Sumeyye - that Islam has 'defined a position for women [in society]: motherhood.'

'Some people can understand this, while others can't,' he added. 'You cannot explain this to feminists because they don't not accept the concept of motherhood.'

He recalled: 'I would kiss my mother's feet because they smelled of paradise. She would glance coyly and cry sometimes.

'Motherhood is something else.'

The president went on to say that women's 'characters, habits and physiques are different.... You cannot place a mother breastfeeding her baby on an equal footing with men.

'You cannot get women to do every kind of work men can do, as in Communist regimes.

'You cannot tell them to go out and dig the soil. This is against their delicate nature.'

He was apparently referring to the practice during and after World War II for women in Communist states like the USSR to do heavy manual work in factories or in roles such as tram drivers.

Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government has long attracted criticism for of seeking to erode the country's secular principles and limiting the civil liberties of women.

In particular, Erdogan has drawn the ire of feminist groups for declaring that every woman in Turkey should have three children and with proposals to limit abortion rights and the morning-after pill.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan pictured with his wife Emine Erdogan in August at the ruling AK Party's headquarters in Ankara. A devout Muslim, Erdogan often courts controversy with divisive public comments about women

A devout Muslim himself, Erdogan often courts controversy with divisive public comments. He raised a few eyebrows this month by declaring that Muslims had discovered the Americas before Christopher Columbus.

'It is alleged that the American continent was discovered by Columbus in 1492,' he said. 'In fact, Muslim sailors reached the American continent 314 years before Columbus, in 1178.'

'In his memoirs, Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque atop a hill on the coast of Cuba,' Erdogan said, adding that he'd like to see a mosque built on the hilltop today.