Women and Civil Society in Turkey. Women’s Movements in a Muslim Society

Focusing on three important interrelated issues, Women and Civil Society in Turkey challenges the classical definition, developed in the West, of civil society as an equivalent of the public sphere in which women are excluded. First it shows how feminist movements have developed a new definition of civil society to include women. Second it draws attention to the role of women in the modernisation of Turkey with special reference to the debate on the possibility of an indigenous feminist movement. Finally, it underlines the contribution of feminist, Islamic and Kurdish women’s movements in the transition from an ideologically constructed, uniform public sphere to a multi-public domain.

Giving attention to the influence of diverse women’s movements over Turkish political values this book sheds light into the issue of how a feminine civil society has been constructed as part of a plural public space in Turkey. Ömer Çaha argues that this new public realm is the product of values and institutions which have been developed by diverse women’s groups who have succeeded in eliminating the traditional barricades between public and domestic spheres and in steering women into public life without sacrificing their own values.

Contents:
+ Civil society in modern political thought and feminist reaction
+ Women and civil society in Turkish politics: from past to present
+ The feminist movement in Turkey during the 1980s
+ The feminist movement from streets to institutions
+ The Islamic women’s movement
+ The Kurdish women’s movement
+ Concluding remarks: women’s movements and feminine civil society in Turkey

• Primary Source