On the eve of international women's day, Turkey's president blamed the media for a rise in cases of domestic violence against women and child abuse, and told journalists to steer clear of reporting them, The Middle East Eye reports.

"Television broadcasts have overdone this business," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said of coverage of violence against women, harassment and rape. "I call on the media here: Please cut these types of broadcasts. Otherwise you will drive this nation over the edge.”

Before lashing out at the media, he said he hoped to eradicate all forms of discrimination and wrongdoing against women, and used a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad about "heaven being under a mother's feet”.

The comments, made to his MPs in parliament on Tuesday, March 6, were condemned by women's rights activists as evidence of a deep-rooted bias in politics that seeks to protect men at any cost.

Erdogan pushed the theme further in a speech on Wednesday, reiterating his displeasure at seeing news items about abuse of women and children and said it was just another means of "objectifying" women.

One social media user said the animosity against women begins with those in power.

In February alone, 47 women were killed by men, according to a report by an NGO working to end violence against women. In January, 28 women were killed.

The report also stated 30 media reported cases of child abuse, without specifying a timeframe for these cases.

Last year, 409 women were killed by men and 332 women were subjected to sexual abuse, according to the same NGO. However those statistics were based solely on documented cases. The vast majority of abuse cases go unreported.