Women’s Civil Society in the Post- Republican Period (1980-1999)

Similar to other issue areas, the 1980s witnessed an emergence of an independent women’s movement and rising awareness on women’s issues in Turkey.

The most important characteristics were the independent feminist discourse from the official ideology and leftist views, and “variety of feminisms”. In the 1980s, with the relaxation of the political climate after the 1980 military coup, women’s groups started to develop a new identity, which was different from the state, and became more sceptical towards the state. In this way, the women’s movement diversified along different strands. After the 1980s, different issues have been brought up by the feminist movement, such as the elimination of violence and discrimination against women, the misrepresentation of women in the media, the controversy against virginity tests, demand for increase in literacy and education levels of women, sanctions against honor crimes, advancement of women’s human rights, adoption of a quota in political participation and increase in representation of women in the parliament. The motto the “personal is political” characterized the women’s movement in the 1980s.

Despite their ideological differences, the women’s movement has mobilized around different issues from the 1980s onwards. One issue for mobilization was an petition campaign for the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Types of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) that Turkey signed in 1985. Within this context, women criticized the Civil Code and the Penal Code and demanded equal rights under the law and initiated a petition campaign in 1986 (Kardam 2007:195).

Arat (2008: 397) claims “feminists of diverse persuasions united over their dissatisfaction with the legal framework”. Another issue was the mobilization against domestic violence. In 1987 the women’s movement organized various demonstrations. Particularly, the “No to Battering March” was organized in 1987 following a decision by a judge who ruled against a woman’s appeal for divorce on the basis that women need to be beaten to be controlled; consequently, a national campaign for the struggle against violence against women was started (Toktaş and Diner 2011: 61). Therefore, women in Turkey were united and cooperated among various issues.

The relationship between the state and women’s organizations has taken different forms. Traditionally, civil society organizations were tightly controlled in

Turkey. As Chapter 4 outlined in detail, with the 1980 military coup and authoritative 1982 Constitution, the state restricted various groups, movements and political parties. However, after the military coup, the new government by Özal did not feel threatened by the new women’s movement in Turkey, because the government did not take the women’s movement seriously and did not attach critical importance to women’s organizations (Kardam 2005: 42), but indirectly, the state opened up space for women’s mobilization. During this time, women’s organizations and the state did not have much interaction. Nevertheless, in 1987 Turkey had established the first public institution called the “Advisory Board for Policies with Regard to the Women”

within the State Planning Organization to raise gender awareness with the involvement of representatives from public agencies, NGOs and universities.

Another characteristic is the existence and use of external networks in women’s civil society. Women’s organizations started to establish formal links with international organizations, discover their rights and use the CEDAW process and regulations strategically to promote their demands. In 1986, women’s groups organized a campaign for the implementation of CEDAW and demanded their legal rights. Women’s activism together with pressure from the UN’s CEDAW opened the way for the adoption of the Law on the Protection of the Family (Law No. 4320) in 1998. The law enacted new measures for the protection of women from domestic violence and penalized domestic violence against women and children. Under this law, domestic violence was no longer considered as a private matter but became a critical problem in the public sphere.

The 1990s was characterized as a period of institutionalization and an emergence of new actors in relation to the women’s civil society. In the 1990s, the women’s movement led the establishment of civil society organizations in the form of foundations and associations. One important characteristic of the 1990s was various initiations to institutionalize the women’s movement. For instance, in 1990, the Women’s Library (Kadın Eserleri Kütüphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfı) was founded in İstanbul. Also, universities established research centers and departments of women’s studies. Purple Roof (Mor Çatı) the first independent women’s shelter was established to find secure accommodation for battered women and symbolized the solidarity of the women’s movement. The establishment of the Association for Supporting and Training Women Candidates (Kadın Adayları Destekleme ve Eğitme Derneği-KA-DER) reflects another example of the institutionalization of the women’s

movement and formation of civil society organizations in the form of associations.

Another important characteristic of the women’s movement in Turkey, which became more pronounced during this period, was the cleavages between women’s groups, specifically the Kemalist, Islamist and Kurdish identities of these groups. This period characterized the formation of the identity of the women’s movement and its institutionalization as well as fragmantation. Nonetheless, the cleavage in women’s movement after the 1990s profited from Kurdish and Islamist feminism and “their criticism against Kemalist feminists for being ethno-centric and exclusionary of other identities” (Diner and Toktaş 2010: 47). Especially, there was the formation of an independent women’s movement out of the Kurdish movement in southeastern Turkey. Diner and Toktaş (2010:48) express the impact of the Kurdish conflict on women as follows: “On the one hand, the environment of violence and insecurity increased the vulnerability of Kurdish women in the region; and on the other hand, it led to the politicization of Kurdish women, as these women became actively involved in political parties and organizations and participated in meetings, demonstrations and protests, even sometimes ending up in prison”. During this period, Kurdish women started to appear in the public sphere. For example, the Saturdays Mothers brought awareness on the issue of missing people under police custody. The establishment of Women’s Center (Kadın Merkezi-KAMER) marked a turning point in the Kurdish women’s movement. KAMER is one of the largest and most respected feminist organizations, very active in 23 cities in the east and southeastern regions of Turkey.

The women in KAMER argue that violence starts in the family; therefore, the first goal of KAMER is to prevent violence and raise awareness inside the family. It is important to highlight that from the 1990s onwards the interaction between KAMER and Turkish feminists has increased (Akkoç 2002). For example, all women’s organizations that fight violence against women meet annually to discuss different issues (Interview Mor Çatı 2011).

Similarly, political Islam brought another dimension to the women’s movement in Turkey. Islamists women demanded a place in the public sphere with a Muslim identity; the headscarf symbolized their appearance in the public sphere.

Moreover, women have actively participated in Islamist political parties in Turkey.

The ban on wearing headscarves at universities united Islamist women under the same umbrella. Women from religious backgrounds have protested this situation and increased women’s political participation in the public sphere. For instance, some

associations similar to Women Against Discrimination (Ayrımcılığa Karşı Kadın Hakları Derneği-AK-DER) and platforms like Rainbow İstanbul Women Organizations’ Platform (Gökkuşağı İstanbul Kadın Platformu-GİKAP) were founded to end discrimination against women who wear headscarves (Interview AK-DER 2011). Both Kurdish nationalism and political Islam have challenged Kemalist feminism.

Women from different segments of society continued to mobilize around the women’s issues during the 1990s. For example, in 1992, women activist’s demands to make changes in the legislative framework led to a nationwide campaign by women platforms in İstanbul, İzmir and Ankara to demand changes in the discriminatory clauses of the Civil Code (Özdemir 2014:127).

In 1990, there was an institutionalization of women’s issues under the state machinery and cooperation between the state and the women’s organizations in Turkey. The dynamics of this engagement first formally developed with the establishment of the Directorate of Women’s Status and Problems (Kadının Statüsü Genel Müdürlüğü –KSGM), the National Women’s Machinery in 1990 to watch the implementation of the CEDAW and the “Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women” which were adopted at the 1985 UN Conference in Nairobi (Ecevit 2007: 196). This process was not initiated by the women’s movement in Turkey. Nevertheless, it put the gender issues, particularly gender equality, on the national agenda and created a framework for negotiation and cooperation between the parties. Although initially the women’s organizations were suspicious about the establishment of the directorate and raised their concerns on the grounds that it would be a mechanism to control gender discourse and direct the activities of organizations with the “national viewpoint”, the directorate gradually gained recognition of the women’s organizations (Acuner 2002; Ecevit 2007: 196; Arat 2008: 398-399).

Arguably, women’s cooperation with the directorate has been successful on two issues. The first was the mobilization and active lobbying of women’s organizations for the amendments of the Civil Code and Penal Code, which discriminate against women and reinforce their dependency. The second was the preparation process of the country report for the Fourth World Congress in Beijing in 1995 and collaboration between the women’s organizations and the directorate. Likewise, the drafts of the National Plan for Action following the Beijing conference and the draft CEDAW reports in 1998 were involved proposals from women’s organizations, revised and

shaped by their recommendations (Ecevit 2007: 197). An expert from KSGM explained the relationship as follows:

Since the establishment of this unit, we worked together with women’s NGOs. The women’s movement in Turkey is strong and very dynamic, and these organizations both have knowledge and are aware of the sensitivities of Turkish women. They have been participating in CEDAW reports since the beginning and in some instances really pushed hard for gender related issues (Interview KSGM a 2011).