(BBC News) The wife of Turkey's president has described the harem of the Ottoman era as an "educational establishment that prepared women for life," reports say.
Emine Erdogan was speaking at an official event on Ottoman sultans in Ankara, say Turkish TV stations.
Her comments came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a woman was "above all a mother" in a speech to mark International Women's Day.
Family members, servants and concubines all lived in the imperial harem.