Contextualising Feminist Global Justice Activism: A Case Study of the Gezi Park Protests

Abstract

Neoliberal globalisation has not affected everywhere equally. It has deepened the socioeconomic inequalities and in some regions has stimulated conservative counter-movements, which affect women more than men. Feminists in the Global Justice Movement draw attention to such issues by highlighting the interrelated nature of patriarchy and the global economic order. In this way, they could incorporate gender justice claims into the wider agenda of the Global Justice Movement and increase their influence as a political actor. This article examines the Gezi Park protests in Turkey as an example of this particular type of feminist activism and contextualises it in local forms of collective action. Utilising Eschle and Maiguashca's (2010) framework, this article explores how women experience unjust global patterns in local contexts and how oppressive patriarchal neoliberal structures at different levels speak to each other. In Turkey's context, neoliberal restructuring policies are accompanied by the promotion of religious, familial and heterosexual values along with the state's penetration into private space, which affects women disproportionally. Turkish feminists in the local Gezi Park protests responded to such regional and national contexts, whilst also defining power relations, injustices and demands in line with international frameworks of feminist antiglobalisation activisms.

Feminist responses to populist politics

“…Women's rights activists, lawyers, and opposition politicians have denounced Erdogan's decree, insisting that he cannot legally take Turkey out of an international convention that was ratified by the parliament. These protests are connected to those at Gezi Park in 2013 (Kilicoglu 2021), and to a very active feminist movement in the country, which has for decades been fighting for gender equality and freedom. 4 These feminist responses find their transatlantic counterparts in the massive feminist movements that have been organised in the last years in South America.…”

Contesting State-Led Patriarchy—The Drivers, Demands and Dynamics of Women’s Participation in the Gezi Uprisings in Turkey 2013

“…In the scientific studies on this, either gender-typical aspects were not deepened in the few empirical studies or socio-psychological theories on protest participation were focused on [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Furthermore, there are mainly descriptive analyses or theoretical considerations regarding the role of women in the protests [8][9][10]. For the first time, this study investigates the drivers and dynamics of women's participation in the protests.…”