Gender and sexuality in the authoritarian discursive strategies of ‘New Turkey’

Abstract

In the last decade, discourse on sexuality has proliferated more than ever in the political realm in Turkey. The discursive utilization of women's bodies and sexualities has appeared as the main tool to consolidate a conservative gender regime and the heterosexual family with children is promoted as the basic unit to reinforce hegemonic moral values and norms. This article aims to disentangle the intricate patchwork in the Justice and Development Party's (JDP) gender politics, which is geared towards ensuring pervasive control of women's bodies and sexualities. Within this framework, this article investigates the proliferation of the discourse on women's bodies and sexualities in Turkish politics by delving into the constitutive factors of the JDP's hegemonic gender politics and examining the narrative lines in recent public debates on women's sexualities.

Reasons for Dropouts of Girls from the Formal Secondary Education Living in Rural Areas

“…Geleneksel ve dini çerçevede kadın cinsiyetinin ikinci sınıf olduğu, günahkâr olduğu, kadınlarla erkeklerin eşit olmadığı vb düşünceler, kadınların güvenilmez olduklarını da telkin etmektedir. Türkiye'de son yıllarda bazı politikacıların ve medyatik din adamlarının kadınlarla ilgili olumsuz ifadeler kullanma sıklıklarının artmış olması (Cindoglu ve Unal, 2017), hem muhafazakârlığın hem de güvensizliğin yaygınlaşmasına etki etmektedir. İlköğretim ve ortaöğretim düzeylerinde kız çocukların okula gönderilmemesi ya da okuldan ayrılmasında ailenin ve çevrenin muhafazakâr dünya görüşünün etkili olduğuna dair başka araştırma bulguları (Adıgüzel, 2013;Aküzüm vd., 2015;İlhan Tunç, 2009) mevcut çalışmanın bulgularını desteklemektedir.…”

De-democratization under the New Turkey? Challenges for women’s organizations

“…Politics of family, attributing sacredness to the family institution while reinforcing gendered roles and duties then became a major discursive tool used by both the AKP government and its ally women's organizations. Debates on population politics involved contestations over women's bodies, sexualities, and their reproductive choices (Cindoglu & Unal, 2017;Korkut & Eslen-Ziya, 2011). During the second decade of the 2000s the 'state led ideology of egalitarianism is replaced by state support and protection of motherhood, which fits perfectly into its conservatism and neo-liberal policies as well as serving to appease its conservative constituency' (Güneş-Ayata & Doğangün, 2017).…”

“…The third item that unfolds the intersection of religious, nationalist, and neo-liberal concerns according to Güneş-Ayata and Doğangün (2017) is the neo-liberal family-centred conservative politics implemented by AKP. Such conservative politics mainly relies on neoliberal-conservative regulation of reproduction, sexuality, and family (Cindoglu & Unal, 2017). Women's organizations, working for women's liberation and gender equality, on the other hand, have hardly given up on their causes.…”

“…In the context of Turkey, this demise of EU-membership from the political agenda accompanied by AKP gaining almost 50 per cent of the votes in the 2011 general elections (Cindoglu & Unal, 2017;Gümüşçü, 2013) brought a number of severe attacks towards gender policies, asserting conservative gender norms by restricting women's choices. The gender-segregated discourses developed by AKP defined women as mothers and sisters, assigning them reproductive, homemaking, and nurturing duties.…”

The Abortion Debate and Profeminist Coalition Politics in Contemporary Turkey

“…The nationalist connotations of the AKP's anti-abortion stance can be clearly detected in Erdoğan's call urging married couples to have “at least three children.” Stressing the need for a young population, he calls birth control “treason to the nation” ( Hürriyet Daily News 2013a ). Reiterating his call for “at least three children” on different occasions ( Hürriyet Daily News 2013b ), he links the AKP's conservative politics of family and its pronatalism to the neoliberal and nationalist components of the party's rule and generates a complex patchwork in which nationalist sentiments, religious sensitivities, antifeminist politics, and neoliberal market rationality come together, reinforcing the hegemony of the AKP's political rule (Acar and Altunok 2013; Ayata and Dogangun 2017; Cindoğlu and Unal 2017; Coşar and Yeğenoğlu 2011).…”