Feminists, Islamists, and Political Change in Turkey

Abstract

This paper examines how some feminist and Islamist women inTurkey helped bring about change in political values during the past decade. The traditional political culture upheld statist, corporatist (as opposed to liberal, individualist) norms. The state controlled religion in the name of secularism and limited democracy within the confines of formal equality. Both feminists and Islamists contested traditional political values by insisting on their own definition of their interests, as opposed to those that were state-enforced. The feminists questioned the justice of formal equality as they sought substantive equality; Islamist women challenged the secular concept of equality as they insisted on the justice of male-female complementarity. Both groups engaged in active politics and expanded the parameters of democratic participation as they sought substantive equality beyond formal equality. Yet the patriarchal heritage of Islam defined the limits of Islamist women's search for liberation within the confines of religion.

Quantitative Empirical Studies on Women’s Issues in Islamic Cultures: Introduction to Special Issue

“…In addition, women's status in other Muslim countries may be different from the Turkish population. Women have been modernized within the Kemalist modernization process in Turkey (Arat 1998;Coşar and Onbaşı 2008). The other Muslim countries, which are from the Middle East, North Africa, or Asia, may have different cultural values and, as a consequence, their interpretation of Islamic religion and rules may be different (Sechzer 2004).…”

Speaking of Women? Exploring Violence against Women through Political Discourses: A Case Study of Headscarf Debates in Turkey

“…The new public sphere of the nation-state was imagined and institutionalized as a site for the implementation of a secular and "progressive" way of life (Gole, 2002;Cinar, 2005). This new way of life was built on a dichotomist understanding of public and private spheres, in which religious practices would be confined to the private sphere (such as daily prayers and religious clothing) and public ones (such as funerals) be subject to the control of religious institutions (Arat, 1998;Saktanber, 2002). Turkish secularization was a two-fold process that aimed at clearing the state apparatus-law, education, state institutions, and political parties -from religious references, and of integrating all public religious affiliations and practices under the state's Directorate of Religious Affairs (DRA) (Davison, 2003).…”

“…The idea of "emancipating" women from the "confines of the Islamic patriarchal regime" constituted the general scheme whereby women's public visibility and citizenship rights were defined (Gole, 1997;Saktanber, 2002). The Swiss Civil Code replaced Muslim family law, and women were granted equal rights in inheritance and divorce in 1926, and suffrage rights in 1934 (Arat, 1998;Kandiyoti, 1997). Suffrage was accompanied by nationwide campaigns for women's education and the abandonment of veiling (Parla, 2001).…”

Dissolving the diaspora: Dialogical practice in the development of deep multiculturalism

“…(Withol de Werden, 1998: 145) The clearest symbol of how Muslim women have chosen to express their identity is manifest in the complex of personal, cultural, religious and political decisions rendered regarding the Muslim headscarf, hijab, niqab, burqa and other forms of head and face covering. A series of scholars, notably AlSayyad (2002), Arat (1998), Benhabib (2002, Kepel (1997) and Withol de Wenden (1998) has alerted us to the complexity of decoding what Muslim women's choices say about their identity. Whatever else might be said, the simple equation of headscarf with oppression is unsustainable.…”