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Women's Coalitions beyond the Laicism-Islamism Divide in Turkey: Towards an Inclusive Struggle for Gender Equality?
[journal article]
Abstract In the 2010s in Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) authoritarian-populist turn accompanied the institutionalization of political Islam. As laicism was discredited and labeled as an imposed-from-above principle of Western/Kemalist modernity, the notion of equality ceased to info... view more
In the 2010s in Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) authoritarian-populist turn accompanied the institutionalization of political Islam. As laicism was discredited and labeled as an imposed-from-above principle of Western/Kemalist modernity, the notion of equality ceased to inform the state’s gender policies. In response to AKP's attempts to redefine gender relations through the notions of complementarity and fıtrat (purpose of creation), women across the political spectrum have mobilized for an understanding of gender equality that transcends the laicism - Islamism divide yet maintains secularity as its constitutive principle. Analyzing three recent attempts of women's coalition-building, this article shows that, first, gender equality activists in the 2010s are renegotiating the border between secularity and piety towards more inclusive understandings of gender equality; and second, that struggles against AKP’s gender politics are fragmented due to different configurations of gender equality and secularity that reflect class and ethnic antagonisms in Turkish society. The article thereby argues for the need to move beyond binary approaches to secularism and religion that have so far dominated the scholarly analysis of women’s activism in both Turkey and the Nordic context.... view less
Keywords
gender relations; Islam; laicism; equal opportunity policy; feminism; Turkey; populism; gender; gender policy; secularization; woman; coalition; affirmative action; authoritarianism
Classification
Women's Studies, Feminist Studies, Gender Studies
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
piety; women’s coalitions
Document language
English
Publication Year
2018
Page/Pages
p. 48-58
Journal
Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4
Issue topic
Gender Equality and Beyond: At the Crossroads of Neoliberalism, Anti-Gender Movements, "European" Values, and Normative Reiterations in the Nordic Model
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed