A protestor looks on during clashes with Turkish police outside of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office, near Taksim Square in Istanbul on Tuesday, June 4. The protests began as a demonstration against the planned demolition of Gezi Park and have grown to general anti-government dissent also spilling into the capital, Ankara. 
Protestors cover their faces with plastic. After chaotic scenes in the streets Monday that continued late into the night and sent tear gas wafting through the air, the situation was relatively calm on Tuesday morning in Istanbul's central Taksim Square, near the park where the movement began. 
A demonstrator takes cover at a road block between Taksim and Besiktas in Istanbul on June 4. 
Demonstrators set up road blocks between Taksim and Besiktas. Barricades remain up around the square, and Erdogan's opponents appear determined to continue the demonstrations despite the prime minister's comment on June 3 that he expects the situation to return to normal "within a few days." 
A medical team tends to a protester. The Turkish Medical Association claimed that at least 3,195 people had been injured in clashes on June 1 and June 2. Only 26 of them were in serious or critical condition, it said. 
Protesters stand atop a pile of rubble during clashes with Turkish police on Monday, June 3. 
Turkish riot police fire tear gas canisters to disperse protesters near Taksim Square on June 3. 
Police officers tend to a demonstrator during the violent clashes in Istanbul on June 3. 
A protester waves the Turkish flag from a rooftop at Taksim Square on June 3 as large crowds continue to demonstrate below. 
A protester wears a gas mask as smoke from a burned car fills the air at Taksim Square on June 3. 
Despite Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's call for calm on Monday, June 3, protests continued in Istanbul. Protesters carry the Turkish flag and shout against the government in Gezi Park near central Istanbul. 
After protests that lasted until the early morning, a protester sleeps in a damaged and vandalized vehicle in Taksim Square on June 3. Protests showed no sign of letting up on Monday, almost a week after a peaceful sit-in was met with a police crackdown, igniting the biggest anti-government riots the city has seen in a decade. 
A tired protester rests in front of the graffiti-sprayed wall of an information booth at Taksim Square in central Istanbul on June 3. 
Turkish protesters clash with riot police near the prime minister's office between Taksim and Besiktas early June 3. 
Protesters drive an excavator toward Turkish riot police as they make their way to Erdogan's office on June 3. 
During the clashes, volunteer doctors helped injured protesters in a mosque on June 3. 
A protester is silhouetted by a burning car at Taksim Square during clashes in the early morning of June 3. 
A protester covers his face on June 3 near Erdogan's office in Istanbul. 
Protesters clash with riot police in Istanbul on June 3. 
Protesters gather in Taksim Square in Istanbul on Sunday, June 2. 
Riot police fire tear gas during a protest against Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party in central Ankara on June 2. Sparked by the events in Istanbul, general anti-government protests have sprung up in Ankara. 
Demonstrators hide behind makeshift shields during clashes with Turkish riot police in Ankara on June 2. 
Police use a water cannon to disperse protesters outside Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's working office in Istanbul on June 2. 
Protesters cling to a police vehicle mounted with a water canon in Istanbul on June 2. 
Turkish police detain a protester during demonstrations in Ankara on June 2. 
A protester flashes a victory sign as he takes part in a demonstration in Ankara on Saturday, June 1 in support of the protests in Istanbul against government plans to demolish a park. 
Protesters clash with riot police in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday, June 1. 
Protesters clash with riot police near Gezi Park on June 1. Earlier this week, several dozen activists tried to stage a sit-in at the park, the last bit of green space left in Istanbul's Taksim Square, the city's transit and commercial hub. 
Turkish protesters wearing gas masks face off against riot police near Istanbul's Taksim Square on June 1. 
Riot police use tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd of demonstrators on June 1. 
A man flees the clashes between Turkish protestors and riot police on June 1. On Friday, May 31, riot police stormed the growing camp in Gezi Park with water cannons and tear gas, pushing protesters into surrounding streets and triggering the clashes that have continued for more than 24 hours. 
The clashes damaged surrounding businesses in Istanbul and forced them to close on June 1. 
A man catches his breath behind the line where clashes are taking place on June 1. 
A pair of tourists gasp for air as riot police use tear gas and water cannons the fend off the demonstrators. Turkish security forces allowed small groups of pedestrians to travel through the square. 
Protesters buy gas masks from a local shop near the square on June 1. 
Riot police fire tear gas into the crowd of protesters overnight on Friday, May 31. 
Demonstrators set up barricades and build a fire as they clash with Turkish officers on May 31. 
Friends carry an injured protester on May 31. More than a dozen people have been injured in the clashes. 
Riot police use tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd at Taksim Square on May 31. 
An activist wearing a gas mask is enveloped in a cloud of tear gas on May 31. 
A crowd scatters during clashes on May 31, as one demonstrator throws back the tear gas canister that was launched by riot police. 
Protestors brace themselves as they are fired upon with a water canon by Turkish police forces. 
A large group of demonstrators gather to protest the demolition of Gezi Park in Taksim Square on May 31. 
A Turkish riot policeman uses tear gas in Taksim Square on May 28. 
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- Lesley Abdela: Treatment of women a good weather vane for wider state of politics in Turkey
- She says Erdogan says women should reproduce more; he says he's secular, doesn't sound it
- She says Gezi Park tumult shows divisions between secular and hinted-at Islam state
- Abdela: Erdogan had success leading thriving nation, now out of touch, over-confident
Editor's note: Lesley Abdela is senior partner in Shevolution Consultancy, which has provided training and guidance aimed at women's empowerment in politics, on women's rights issues and in conflict situations in 40 countries. She has written for many publications, including The Guardian and The Sunday Times.
(CNN) -- In my travels around the world I have noted how attitudes toward women are a pretty accurate weather vane indicating what is happening in the wider politics of a country. In visits to Turkey in the past three years I saw rising anxiety about razor-sharp divisions between the secular and those who want a society where women "breed" for their country and wear the hijab.
In May, Turkish women's rights activist Efsa Kuraner e-mailed me from Istanbul, "Things are fast going down the plughole, it's pretty depressing. The Islamic twist is becoming suffocating with how the prime minister keeps trying to cajole women to stay home and have three to five children. They are offering early retirement to women for having upwards of three kids..!! Divorce is frowned upon. Abortion is all but banned. Only there in name. I am afraid darker days are yet to come." Her predictions were prescient.
The divisions have now cracked wide open. A peaceful protest by Istanbulites against plans to chop down ancient trees and transform the city's largest public park, Gezi Park, into a large shopping mall has erupted into a far wider protest. BBC reports say the unrest has spread to 60 cities and towns across Turkey, including the political capital Ankara and popular tourism centers of Bodrum, Konya and Izmir.
Is Gezi Park Turkey's Tahrir Square moment?
On Saturday I received an e-mail with an eyewitness account from a women's organization with offices in the heart of Istanbul. It read: "Three days ago at midnight bulldozers charged into Gezi Park, home to century-old trees. Concerned citizens quickly shared this information on Facebook, Twitter (#direngezipark, #occupygezi), Instagram, and other social media, and numerous other people joined them to stop the destruction. From then on, protesters have been occupying Gezi Park day and night, despite being attacked by police forces with pepper gas and high-pressure water jets."
Opinion: Why Turkey's protests are no Arab Spring
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for some time been alienating his liberal supporters. He seems out of touch. Last year, he characterized abortions and even cesarean sections as "secret plots" to hinder the country's growth. In January, Erdogan called on Turkish women to have "at least four or five children" in the name of the country's "grandeur" and faster economic growth. He assigned four government ministers to work on population policy and proposals for family expansion.
Anti-government protests rattle Turkey 
Erdogan: Powerful, popular, polarizing 
Political turmoil in Turkey The prime minister's Justice and Development Party has its roots in political Islam, but Erdogan insists he is committed to Turkey's secular state. The protesters, unconvinced by his claim, are waving flags emblazoned with photographs of past President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who, beginning in 1923, began Turkey's transition from Ottoman Empire into modern, Western-style secular state with a program of political, economic and cultural reform.
Thousands of new schools were built, and primary education was made free and compulsory. Atatürk's message to the 1935 International Alliance of Women - Congress in Istanbul was: "The exercise of civil and political rights by women is a necessity for the happiness and prestige of humankind."
The Turkish media appear slow to respond to the events of the past few days. Kuraner e-mailed me on Monday: "....total black-out of Turkish media. ... we are quite speechless. ... never seen the media of any country remain soooo silent while a mini revolution was raging all around. ... a supposed democratic country that is!!"
After winning three elections, Erdogan has grown overconfident. Many complain about his increasing authoritarianism. He is scheduled to leave Turkey this week for a four-day visit to North Africa. Some hope he won't return and will step down so things won't escalate.
Erdogan has been in power since 2002. His electoral success was mainly due to the economy; Turkey is the sixth biggest economy in Europe. The decade of rule of Erdogan's AK party has coincided with a time of prosperity. Per-capita income has tripled, exports have increased nearly tenfold and Turkish banks are in good health. The opposition parties (save the Kurds) have until now been weak and divided.
The challenge to both the protesters and the government is to achieve change through the ballot box, not though police brutality nor the bullet. The Turkish government's future policies toward women will be an indicator of the future direction the country will take.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Lesley Abdela.
