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Women’s Coalitions beyond the Laicism–islamism divide in Turkey:Towards an inclusive struggle for gender equality?
Title / Series / Name
Social Inclusion
Publication Volume
6
Publication Issue
4
Pages
Authors
Editors
Keywords
Authoritarian populism
Feminism
Gender equality struggles
Laicism–Islamism divide
Piety
Secularity
Turkey
Women’s coalitions
Social Psychology
Sociology and Political Science
SDG 5 - Gender Equality
Feminism
Gender equality struggles
Laicism–Islamism divide
Piety
Secularity
Turkey
Women’s coalitions
Social Psychology
Sociology and Political Science
SDG 5 - Gender Equality
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/28545
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 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.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2018-11-22
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
10.17645/si.v6i4.1546