Over the years, women’s CSOs have helped articulate women’s demands, institutionalize women’s movements, and increase the public awareness on women’s problems. By their commitment to empower women, to change gender relations in Turkish society and politics, and to push the government to reform gender policies, women’s rights organizations are regarded as influential actors within the democratic CS in Turkey (Arat 2008; Ergun 2010;
Kalaycıoğlu 2007; Kubicek 2005;). Due to their considerable achievements, many scholars see them as democratic agents (Arat 1994; Marshall 2009). Therefore, a thorough analysis of the participation and inclusion of women’s CSOs would provide a valuable insight into the analysis of the relationship between CS and the democratic consolidation process in Turkey.
There are more than 500 women’s CSOs in Turkey.28 They all focus on empowerment of women in social, cultural, economic, or political life, but they employ different strategies to achieve their goals. Some of these women’s CSOs do not necessarily fight for gender equality, but their presence and plurality enrich the public space available for women. To analyze the relationship between organized women and democratic consolidation, the present study takes only women’s CSOs into account that actively seek to change state’s gender policies.
Organized women in Turkey are not a unified bloc. Broadly speaking, there are four groups of women’s rights CSOs whose demands overlap occasionally (Arat 2008; Coşar and Onbasi 2008;
Diner and Toktaş 2010; Patton 2010): feminist, Kurdish, Islamist, and Kemalist women’s CSOs. These selected groups are proponents of different political movements in Turkey. The feminist CSOs
28 A list of women’s organizations in Turkey can be found on the website of Flying Broom (Uçan Süpürge) which is one of the influential women’s CSOs in Turkey, see: (www.ucansupurge.org/dernekler/derneklerlist/php). (rev.
20.10.2014)
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are selected on the basis of their crucial role within the broad spectrum of organized women in Turkey. They have been the first group of women that challenged the patriarchal structures in Turkish society and brought up issues such as violence against women, sexual harassment, incest, women’s bodily rights, and gender equality in the private sphere. Organized feminists have two groups within themselves: radical and socialist feminists, but the present study does not differentiate between these two groups since they act, to a great extent, together. The selected feminist organizations have both radical and socialist feminist members. The Kurdish, Islamist, and Kemalist women’s CSOs are selected due to their political identities that represent the dominant political cleavages within Turkish politics and society. While organized Kurdish women have criticized the nationalistic character of the Turkish state, organized Islamist women have demanded more religious freedom and the reconsideration of the secularism principle of the Turkish state. Both groups have also challenged dominancy of men within their respective movements and independently formed their own gender-based struggle in the civil society sphere. In opposition to the Islamist and Kurdish women’s CSOs, organized Kemalist women have positioned themselves as the defenders of the secularist and nationalist principles of the Turkish state. They are the defenders of women’s rights that were granted by the early Kemalist state elite.
For each of these four groups, I selected three organizations with high records of visibility and recognition within their own groups and the broader CS in Turkey.29 The selected CSOs represent, to a great extent their, own groups. But I have to remark that the selected Islamist women’s CSOs are unique examples within the broader spectrum of organized Islamist women due to their openness to cooperation with other women’s CSOs and their independence from religious parties and sects (tarikats). Despite the ideological differences, all these women’s groups have participated in broad organized women’s platforms to push the AKP government for reforming gender policies in Turkey. Considering the large numbers of women’s CSOs, studying only twelve women’s CSOs might raise doubts on the representativeness of the study.
While aware of the limitations, I consider the sample to be representative because of their capacity to represent the political cleavages that crosscut organized women in Turkey.
29 A detailed information on the selected CSOs will be provided in the empirical chapters discussing each women’s group.
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The selected women’s CSOs are organized on a voluntary basis, autonomous from the state and political parties, and have a high level of organizational capacity. They cooperate with state institutions, women’s shelters, women’s studies programs, national and foreign CSOs, and international organizations. These women’s CSOs have not only been chosen from major cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, but also from Van and Diyarbakır (Kurdish provinces). This will indeed yield a broader picture on the role of organized women throughout Turkey.
Table (3. 1): SELECTED CSOs
Women’s Groups CSOs Cities
Feminist CSOs Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation (Mor Çatı Kadın Dayanışma Vakfı) Van Women’s Association (Van Kadın Derneği - VAKAD);
Diyarbakır, Van
Kemalist women’s CSOs
Turkish Women’s Union- Istanbul branch (Türk Kadınlar Birliği, TKB - Istanbul)
Istanbul, Izmir
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Istanbul Women’s Associations Platform (Istanbul Kadın Kuruluşları Platformu - IKK) Izmir Women’s Associatioms Platform (Izmir Kadın Kuruluşları Platformu)
Here, three issue areas have been selected for further examination of the impact of women’s CSOs: violence against women, gender equality and women’s rights, and discrimination against women. They are considered to be the most important dimensions of the women rights regime, both on the global and national level. Violence against women comprises range of acts from physical and sexual abuse to verbal harassment, coercion, exclusion, humiliation, threat, intimidation, and hindrance. The end of this spectrum is murder of women. The international organizations such as the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) have described gender-based violence as a violation of women’s human rights. Gender equality refers to the view that men and women need to have equal access to political, economic, social, and cultural resources and receive equal treatment in these spheres of life. It is thus implicitly related with discrimination against women. The CEDAW treaty, seen as the international bill of women’s rights, defines discrimination against women as the exclusion, distinction, or restriction based on sex which have severe effects on women’s lives. Though these issues seem interrelated in terms of their contents, they are framed and discussed differently within organized women in Turkey.