Beyond the Modern/Religious Dichotomy: The Veil and Feminist Solidarity in Contemporary Turkey

2015-06-01
Secular nationalism and Islamism constitute a major political polarization in current day Turkey. The proponents of both political orientations use the trope of the veiled woman, in order to advance their respective ideologies. However, the instrumentalization of women’s bodies in this way not only proves inefficient in adequately addressing many of the problems that women face today, but it is also linked to the relentless state control and regulation over our bodies. The following essay gives an account of the ways in which both secular nationalists and Islamists are not hesitant about policing our bodies at the service of their ideology. This is a call for solidarity and a true feminist pluralism outside the confines of this divide within which women’s interests always take the back seat to nationalist projects.
Philosophical Topics

Suggestions

Patronage, party, and state: The politicization of Islam in Turkey
Ayata, S (1996-12-01)
The recent rise of political Islam in Turkey is examined in terms of a complex: interplay between four major processes: the policies of the parties on the center light toward religion; state-sponsored religious activities and the consolidation of establishment Islam; the impact of Sufi tarikats and communities; and the growing organizational strength, ideological appeal, and electoral base of the Islamist Welfare Party (WP).
Consolidation of neoliberalism through political islam and its limits: The case of Turkey
Uzgoren, Elif (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi (Ankara, Turkey), 2018-12)
The Justice and Development Party (JDP) carries the neoliberal programme with a moderate form of Islam in Turkey since 2002 elections. This article aims to present a political economy reading of Turkey’s state-society formation historically through embarking on Gramscian historical materialism. It then questions how institutionalist and critical political economy literature debate the JDP rule. I shall argue that while the institutionalist political economy literature fails to explicate the JDP rule, c...
The relationship between cross-cutting exposure and political tolerance: the case of Turkey
Paksoy, Cansu; Cingöz Ulu, Banu; Department of Psychology (2017)
Political tolerance is a crucial issue in Turkey due to potential political polarization, prolonged inter-ethnic conflicts, and negative views toward minorities. This study examines the relationship between cross-cutting exposure and political tolerance based on the beneficial consequences of cross-cutting exposure for deliberation (i.e., unbiased information seeking, ambivalence, a realistic perspective towards one’s own view). The present study replicates the hypothesis that cross-cutting discussion (i.e....
The sustainability crisis of Alevis
Tol, Uğraş Ulaş; Özçoban Üstüner, Fahriye; Department of Political Science and Public Administration (2009)
One of the important agendas of Turkey in the 2000s has been the “Alevi Revival”. The subject of this thesis, which claims that Alevis are in a search of identity rather than in a period of revival, is the sustainability crisis of the Alevis. Aleviness which has not been mentioned in the political sphere before has now turned into frequently spoken phenomenon. In this “Open Aleviness” period Alevis felt themselves more free and relieved and with this sense they started to claim more rights and freedoms. The...
Secession and fragmentation in tevhidi islamic communities: believing subject vs. believing community
Çapık, Kenan; Yıldırım, Erdoğan; Department of Sociology (2014)
This thesis aims to descriptively analyze islamist communities/NGO’s in Ankara with respect to how they construct their religious identity and we-and-others dichotomy and to understand the theoretical and practical reasons of secession and fragmentation among islamist groups and NGO’s which have been widespread since the blossoming of Islamism in Turkey. On the background I will be questioning whether Islamism intrinsically carries an exclusionist and dichotomist discourse. The study also aims to shed light...
Citation Formats
F. İbrahimhakkıoğlu, “Beyond the Modern/Religious Dichotomy: The Veil and Feminist Solidarity in Contemporary Turkey,” Philosophical Topics, pp. 141–156, 2015, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/583951.