Femicide and the Speaking State

Abstract

High rates of gender-based violence and sexist political rhetoric are central features of contemporary Turkey. This article explores the complex relationship between the two by drawing on the literature that investigates the (re)making of the category of “woman” in the Middle East and the scholarship on femicide/feminicide. The article employs critical discourse analysis of ruling politicians’ gender-normative statements and shows how they reconstruct the category of “proper woman” as one with institutional and social consequences that compromise women’s safety. Using John L. Austin’s theory of performative speech acts, the article develops a theory of the speaking state to explain the effects of political speech. Ultimately it argues that the politics of “woman making” is central to “the politics of woman killing.”

A Space of One’s Own? The Tensions of Being Visible on Instagram for Turkish Female Athletes

“…Almost all participants emphasized that they felt uneasy on the street or in the gym from time to time, and they feared that online harassment could penetrate into their offline lives. This fear can be understood more clearly in light of the analysis conducted by Atuk (2020) on the concept of the speaking state. The speaking state authorizes the institutional practices that allow femicide and grants institutional legitimacy to acts of violence when they are framed as reactions to women’s improper gender performances (p. 288).…”

“…According to Atuk (2020), high rates of gender-based violence and sexist political rhetoric are other central features of contemporary Turkey. She argues that the politics of "woman making" are central to "the politics of woman killing."…”

“…As Kern (2021) emphasized in her book titled Feminist City, our participants were also afraid and felt the threat of violence while experiencing the city. In the context of Turkish society and sports, we can highlight the following as important and effective factors for the young female athletes we interviewed: In Turkey, women's experiences of living safely and freely in cities is being increasingly restricted day by day, and women's experiences of harassment, violence, and murder in private and public spaces (and the damaging influences of living among them) are also increasing (Acar & Altunok, 2013;Atuk, 2020;Kandiyoti, 2016;Tandogan & Ilhan, 2016). This is a major concern for athletes and for their families as well, and it raises the risk of women finding themselves unable to participate in sports and exercise.…”

“…According to Atuk (2020), high rates of gender-based violence and sexist political rhetoric are other central features of contemporary Turkey. She argues that the politics of “woman making” are central to “the politics of woman killing.” In connection with this, Muftuler Bac and Muftuler (2021) report that increasing numbers of women in Turkey are being murdered by their relatives, spouses, or significant others.…”

Social pathologies and urban pathogenicity: Moving towards better pandemic futures

“…Increasing occurrences of domestic violence as a result of social isolation and the closure of shelters have also been frequently reported during the pandemic (Burki, 2020; Cousins, 2020; Gausman and Langer, 2020). In Turkey, where women are increasingly put at risk of violence and murder by state actors and institutions (Atuk, 2020), 494 women were murdered last year. The highest incidence of femicide happened in Istanbul while more than half of the cases took place at home (KCDP, 2020), signalling a simple fact that home is not necessarily a safe place for everyone.…”