https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5196-944X
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ABSTRACT
Could the Turkish women’s movement, which has a strong reaction mechanism, be a constituent actor of counter-hegemony? The main reasons behind this question are the women’s movement’s deep-rooted history and its openness to combine theory with practice/action. When looked from the Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s perspective of radical democracy theory, the women’s movement appears to have a considerable potential of deciphering the existing hegemony and articulating the social demands which exclude and are excluded by the present-day hegemony in Turkey. This article tries to understand how women’s movement in Turkey conceptualizes the existing power relations that constitute the neoliberal religio-conservative hegemony and how it responds to it.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on Melisa Gündüz's MA thesis that was supervised by Funda Gençoğlu.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s ).
Notes
1 See Çınar, “From Moderation to De-Moderation”; Tansel, “Authoritarian Neoliberalism”; Eslen-Ziya and Kazanoğlu, “De-Democratization”; and Arat, “Democratic Backsliding.”
2 Freedom House, “Freedom in the World.”
3 V-Dem, “Autocratization Turns Viral.”
4 See Somer, “Understanding”; Esen and Gumuscu, “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism”; Cindoğlu and Unal, “Gender and Sexuality”; Tansel, “Authoritarian Neoliberalism”; Oğuz, “Yeni Türkiye’nin”; Bashirov and Lancaster, “End of Moderation”; Özbudun, “AKP at the Crossroads”; and Esen and Gumuscu, “How the Coup Failed?”
5 Kandiyoti, “No Laughing Matter,” and Kandiyoti, “The Gender Wars.”
6 Unal, “Are You God?”
7 Yılmaz, “Dişil Dindarlık.”
8 Arat, “Democratic Backsliding.”
9 Özkazanç, “Gender,” and “Amok Runners.”
10 See Güneş-Ayata and Doğangün. “Gender Politics”; Kiely, “Assesing Conservative Populism”; Tuğal, “Fight or Acquiesce?”; and Yılmaz, “‘Strengthening the Family’.”
11 Özdemir, “Farklılıkların Kesiştiği Coğrafyalar İçin.”
12 See Pino, “Politics of Indignation”; Valdivielso, “The Outraged People”; and Gençoğlu-Onbaşı, “Gezi Park Protests.”
13 See Demirtaş, “The Middle East”; Tekdemir, “Conflict and Reconciliation”; and Tekdemir, “Constructing a Social Space.”
14 See Gençoğlu-Onbaşı, “‘Radical Social Democracy’” and Baytok, “Radikal Demokrasi.”
15 Başaran, “Radikal Demokrasi.”
16 Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, x, emphasis original.
17 Ibid., x.
18 Ibid., xii.
19 Ibid., xi.
20 Ibid., xii.
21 Ibid., xvii.
22 Ibid., xvii–xviii.
23 Ibid., xviii.
24 Ibid., xii.
25 Laclau, On Populist Reason, 86.
26 Ibid., 74.
27 Ibid.
28 Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, xiii.
29 Ibid., xiii.
30 Ibid., 120.
31 Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, xxvi–xxviii.
32 Enloe, The Big Push, 16.
33 Ibid., 76.
34 Ibid., 20.
35 Ibid., 76.
36 Ibid., 167.
37 For detailed information on the historical development of the women’s movement in Turkey please see, among others, Çakır, Osmanlıda Kadın Hareketi; Sirman, “Feminism in Turkey”; Yaraman, Resmî Tarihten Kadın Tarihine; Tekeli, 1980ler Türkiyesinde Kadın Bakış; Zihnioğlu, Kadınsız İnkılap; Toprak, Türkiye’de Kadın Özgürlüğü; Coşar and Gençoğlu-Onbaşı, “Women's Movement,” Arat, The Patriarchal Paradox; and Gençoğlu-Onbaşı, “Kadınlar Halk Fırkası.”
38 Tekeli, Feminizmi Düşünmek, 277.
39 Çınar, “Taksim Gezi’sinde AKP.”
40 Yörük, “The Long Summer.”
41 Çınar, “Taksim Gezi’sinde AKP.”
42 Güneş-Ayata and Doğangün, “Gender Politics.”
43 Ibid.
44 Moudouros, “Rethinking.”
45 Güneş-Ayata and Doğangün, “Gender Politics.” 611.
46 Cindoğlu and Ünal, “Gender and Sexuality,” 43.
47 Yılmaz, “‘Strengthening the Family’.”
48 Altunok, “‘Neo-Conservatism.”
49 Ibid., 139.
50 Ibid.
51 “Turkey President Erdogan.” BBC.
52 “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.” The Guardian.
53 “Erdoğan: Bu feministler filan.” Hürriyet.
54 Brown, In the Ruins.
55 For some scholars of Turkish politics, due to these features, the existing economic system in the country should be called state capitalism. See, for instance Öniş, “Turkey under the Challenge” and Kutlay, “The Politics of State Capitalism.”
56 Although until after the June 2015 general elections the AKP openly refrained from using a nationalist discourse, after the renewed elections of November 2015 it built an unofficial coalition with the Nationalist Action Party (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) and started to make constant references to the notions of “authentic and national” (yerli ve milli). Thus, its gender discourse began to be characterized by attacks to feminist ideas, actors and movements on the grounds that they are inauthentic and alien. So, in this sense we can say that nationalism has been an indispensable part of this religio-conservative gender regime. For a discussion, see Mutluer, “The intersectionality.”
57 Diner and Toktaş, “Waves of Feminism”; Koyuncu and Özman, “Women’s Rights Organizations”; and Coşar and Gençoğlu-Onbaşı, “Women's Movement.”
58 Campbell et al. “Purposive Sampling.”
59 Flying Broom, “Who Are We?”
60 Filmmor, “Filmmor Women’s Cooperative.”
61 KA.DER, “KA.DER’le Tanışın.”
62 Kadın Dayanışma Vakfı, “Women’s Counseling Center.”
63 Mor Çatı, “About Us.”
64 Türk Kadınlar Birliği, “Tarihçe.”
65 İlerici Kadınlar Dayanışma Derneği, “İlerici Kadınlar Derneği (İKD) Yeniden!”
66 Kadın Koalisyonu, “Kimiz?”
67 The names of the representatives are: Halime Güner (US), Melek Özman (FM), Nilgün Karacaoğlu (KA.DER), Leyla Topal (KDV), Aslı Elif Sakallı (MÇ), Sema Kendirci Uğurman (TKB), Nöber Özyürekoğlu (IKDD), İlknur Üstün (KK).
68 For interviews we obtained approval from Başkent University Social and Human Sciences and Art Research Committee with approval number: 17162298.600-177. Ethics committee members are as follows: Prof. Dr. M. Abdülkadir Varoğlu, Prof. Dr. Kudret Güven, Prof. Ali Sevgi, Prof. Dr. Işıl Bulut, Prof. Dr. Sadegül Akbaba Altun, Prof. Dr. Can Mehmet Hersek, Prof. Dr. Özcan Yağcı.
69 All interviewees are informed about the utilization of obtained data from their interviews. First, we asked their permission before the interviews verbally to record interviews and utilize recording data. Second, after the recording started we asked their permission to put on the record.
70 van Dijk, “Principles,” and “Critical Discourse Analysis,” 466–85.
71 For a discussion about different forms of patriarchy in Turkey please see Coşar and Kerestecioğlu, “Feminist Politics” in which the authors mention, for instance, republican, leftist, and neoliberal conservative patriarchy. This in turn, is in accordance with the concept of sustainable patriarchy which constitutes another pillar of our article.
72 Güner, Personal Interview.
73 Kendirci-Uğurman, Personal Interview.
74 Topal, Personal Interview.
75 Özyürekoğlu, Personal Interview.
76 Özman, Personal Interview.
77 Karacaoğlu, Personal Interview.
78 Üstün, Personal Interview.
79 Kendirci-Uğurman, Personal Interview.
80 See Bodur-Ün, “Contesting.”
81 Kendirci-Uğurman, Personal Interview.
82 Sakallı, Personal Interview.
83 Özyürekoğlu, Personal Interview.
84 Üstün, Personal Interview.
85 Mouffe, Agonistics, 132.
86 Ibid., 142.
87 Ibid., 142–3.
88 Güner, Personal Interview.
89 Kendirci-Uğurman, Personal Interview.
90 Özyürekoğlu, Personal Interview.
91 Karacaoğlu, Personal Interview.
92 Özman, Personal Interview.
93 Topal, Personal Interview.
94 Üstün, Personal Interview.
95 Sakallı, Personal Interview.
96 Mouffe, Agonistics.
97 Ibid.
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid.
100 Üstün, Personal Interview.
101 Kendirci-Uğurman, Personal Interview.
102 Güner, Personal Interview; Sakallı, Personal Interview; and Özman, Personal Interview.
103 Özyürekoğlu, Personal Interview.
104 Sakallı, Personal Interview.
105 Enloe, The Big Push, 167.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Melisa Gündüz
Melisa Gündüz is a doctoral student in Political Science at Başkent University. She accomplished her graduate degree in International Relations at Dokuz Eylül University in 2016 and her master’s degree in International Relations at Başkent University in 2019. Within the framework of Chantal Mouffe’s and Ernesto Laclau’s radical democracy theory, her research has focused on the counter-hegemony potential of organizational women’s movement in Turkey. Her main academic interests are political philosophy, feminist theory and women’s movements.
Funda Gençoğlu
Prof. Dr. Funda Gencoglu received her B.A. and M.A. degrees from Bilkent University and her Ph.D. from Middle East Technical University. She currently lectures on history of political thought and political theory at in the Department of Political Science at Atılım University, She is interested in deciphering unequal power relations and their present hegemonic configuration, and recently has been writing about intellectuals and anti-intellectualism in Turkey. Previously, she published research on the discontents of democracy in Turkey by focusing on various issues including the discrimination against women, LGBTIQ+, the Roma population, and the Kurds.