In the 1990s, the Islamist RP under the lead of Necmettin Erbakan largely benefited from women’s involvement in its mobilization nationwide. Islamist women activists were organized at the grassroots level, mostly in the shantytowns of the big cities, and worked for the election campaigns of the RP (Ayata and Tütüncü 2008: 369). According to RP leaders, women activists could reach potential female voters in their neighborhoods more easily than men. The campaign manager and the head of the Women’s Commission of the RP Sibel Eraslan worked with 18,000 women on the March 1994 local elections (Arat 1998; Ayata and Tütüncü 2008). The RP won the local elections in major cities including Istanbul and Ankara, but Eraslan was not given any political position within the party organization afterwards (Arat 1998: 124). Accordingly, a group of Islamist women activists began questioning and criticizing male dominance in the Islamist political movement.
In order to voice their demand for participation and inclusion in the public sphere, without being pushed back by Islamist men, Islamist women activists began to form their own CSOs with different purposes and develop a political agenda from women’s perspective. Like early feminist activists, the initiators of independent Islamist women’s activism were mostly well-educated, middle-class women from urban centers, who were either university students or
136 Article 2 of the Turkish Constitution stipulates that: “The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular, and social state governed by the rule of law; bearing in mind the concepts of public peace, national solidarity, and justice;
respecting human rights; loyal to the nationalism of Atatürk, and based on the fundamental tenets set forth in the Preamble.”, see: http://www.hri.org/docs/turkey/part_i.html#article_2 (rev.19.11.2014)
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professionals. They aimed to find common solutions for religious women’s problems in voluntary organizations.
The oldest Islamist women’s organization in Turkey is the ‘Rainbow Istanbul Women’s Organizations Platform’ (Gökkuşağı Istanbul Kadın Kuruluşları Platformu, GIKAP). At the National Women’s Congress (1993), the state’s body KSSGM called women activists to establish civil society groups.137 In 1995, Islamist women from different organizations and groups in Istanbul established GIKAP. It was comprised of forty-six women’s groups from the Islamist movement and primarily focused on improving the everyday lives of women and the family (Erarslan 2007:
253). Its participants decided to keep their distance from all Islamic groups or parties. The majority of the founding members were educated women from Istanbul, who were professionals, university students or housewives.
GIKAP has attached great importance to educational activities that target women’s self-development, and to encouraging women to participate in social and cultural life. It also emphasizes the need to strengthen civil rights in Turkey to overcome the problems of Islamist women.138 To this end, it encourages its member organizations to take an active role in social projects and to participate in political decision-making processes. According to its website, its political influence has grown since it became a member of the consultative committee of the
‘General Directorate of Family and Social Research’, which acts under the auspices of the Prime Ministry. GIKAP’s representatives participate in regional meetings on women’s status and problems in the Muslim world and exchange their experiences in empowering women and family.
GIKAP’s member groups reached fifty-four by 2011.139It has a semi-hierarchical organizational structure that allows selecting an executive committee by democratic voting. It publicizes its activities through press releases as well as on its website. The organization has close ties with the women’s organizations from the Muslim world, especially from the Turkic states in Central Asia. GIKAP’s projects are financed through individual and state donations.
137 http://gikap.org/Tarihce.html (rev. 15.02.2014)
138 http://gikap.org/VizyonMisyon.html (rev. 15.02.2014)
139 http://gikap.org/Tarihce.html (rev. 15.02.2014)
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In 1995, another group of well-educated Islamist women in Ankara formed the ‘Capital City Women’s Platform’ (Başkent Kadın Platformu, BKP) to focus on women’s rights and problems arising from discriminatory practices in Turkish society and culture. These middle- and upper-middle-class Islamist women discussed the subordinate status of women in Turkish society and family, and underscored the importance of women’s perspectives in dealing with women’s problems. BKP, as the first religious women’s CSO in Ankara, aimed to form a platform for religious women. In 2002, BKP transformed into the Association of Capital City Women’s Platform (Başkent Kadın Platformu Derneği) to act in a more structured and organized way (Güler 2009). The aim of BKP is: “[d]etermining women’s problems and producing alternative perspectives, and theoretical and practical solutions, to improve women’s intellectual, psychological, social, and economic situation; providing dialogue, communication, and solidarity between women; and conducting activities by gathering different women around common benefits”.140 The former president of BKP Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal, who was banned from teaching at the theology faculty of University of Ankara because of her headscarf, argued that BKP was critical of the Turkish state’s assumption that women can only participate in the public sphere by suppressing their religious identity.141 Furthermore, BKP also criticized the approach of Islamist traditionalists towards women’s role in society.
BKP has a participative and non-hierarchical organizational structure. The delegates of all member organizations are represented in its plenary council. Its executive committee is elected by the plenary assembly and serves for a two-year term.142 BKP has 180 members, and the number reaches 500, if volunteers are included (Güler 2009). It is financed through donations, dues, and income from its courses. As Tuksal stated in our communication, women reach BKP through telephone, mail, its website, or friends. Over the years, it has expanded its international and national networks through its participation in different platforms such as the UN’s World Conferences on Women, ‘the Executive Committee for NGO Forum on CEDAW’ , and Amnesty International.
140 http://www.baskentkadin.org/tr/?cat=6 (rev.16.02.2014)
141 Personal communication with Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal, the founding member of BKP, October 2010, Ankara. She is a famous activists and academic working on women and Islam and writes regularly for Turkish dailies.
142 http://www.baskentkadin.org/tr/?p=358 (rev. 16.02.2014)
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In the aftermath of the 28February 1997 military intervention, stricter enforcement of the headscarf ban excluded more women from public institutions (cf. Chapter 4). In 1999, the
‘Women’s Rights Association against Discrimination’ (Ayrımcılığa Karşı Kadın Hakları Derneği, AKDER), the third CSO analyzed here, was formed by students and professionals in Istanbul, after they were expelled from their universities or jobs because of the headscarf ban. Thus, the initial aim of AKDER was to provide financial support and legal advice to students and professionals with headscarves. Neslihan Akbulut, the general secretary of AKDER, stated: “Dozens of veiled students who could not pursue their education in Turkish universities were sent to universities abroad through the donations AKDER collected”.143 Since its establishment, AKDER has organized meetings, seminars, and symposiums on the problems arising from the headscarf ban and demanded the inclusion of religious identity in public space.
AKDER also tries to attract public attention to discrimination against women in a broader sense. To this end, it regularly publishes reports and articles on women’s legal rights with regard to family, work, political participation, and education. In these reports, it highlights discriminatory laws and social norms that restrain women from exercising their basic rights and discusses how to overcome these hindrances.144 AKDER publicizes its activities on its website, or through mailing lists and social media. Like BKP, it is also a well-organized but semi-hierarchical association. Its plenary council votes to determine the tasks of its working groups. The executive committee implements projects, takes decisions, and communicates with state institutions, and is controlled by the advisory board.145AKDER’s expenses are mainly financed by membership dues, but its scholarships are funded through donations.
The three organizations - GIKAP, BKP, and AKDER – are the most prominent and visible independent Islamist women’s CSOs in Turkey. Table (7.1) below lists some information about these three Islamist women’s CSOs. They define themselves as women’s rights organizations, differentiating themselves from other Islamist women’s organizations engaged in charity and religious activities, and they are not under the influence of any Islamist political party. As
143 Personal interview with Neslihan Akbulut (Arıkan), October 2011, Istanbul. Akbulut has been the general secretary of AKDER between June 2007 and April 2012, now she is working as an academic. She was also banned from her university in Istanbul and completed her sociology study in Sweden.
144 Personal interview with Fatma Benli, the member of the advisory board and the former general secretary of AKDER (1999-2006) and a prominent human and women’s rights lawyer, November 2010, Istanbul.
145 http://www.ak-der.org/tuzuk.gbt (rev. 17.02.2014)
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mentioned above, the founders of these CSOs are mostly educated women, but the members are from middle or lower-middle class women mostly with headscarves. Most do not call themselves as feminists, but some do, and they have come to be known as ‘Islamist feminists’ in the Turkish media (Akman 2008; Arat 2008; Marshall 2005).
Table (7.1): ISLAMIST WOMEN’S CSOs
167 general secretary)