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A Muslim Feminist NGO in Turkey: The Case of Havle Women’s Association
Abstract
This study focuses on the Islam-based feminist stance of Havle Women’s Association (HWA) and its intellectual offerings and unique place in Turkey’s feminist movement. A newcomer to Turkey’s feminist movement, HWA was founded in Istanbul in 2018 by former members of various Islamic women initiations like “Muslim Initiative Against Violence Against Women” and “Women in Mosques” and framed itself as “the first Muslim Feminist Women’s Association in Turkey”. The paper examines HWA as a case study of Islamic decolonial feminism in Turkey. By engaging with Islamic feminism and decolonial feminism literature, the study aims to investigate whether HWA produces new feminist direction in Turkey, how does HWA formulate its identity towards both authoritarian AKP rule, Western stereotyped feminism and Sunni-orthodox Islam understanding. To answer the main questions of the study, I employ qualitative research methods, which rely on textual analysis and thick description. Specifically, the paper investigates HWA’s “Localization of Feminism in Turkey” ideal by examining their case studies, reports, and policy recommendations. Also, their activities like Havle Meetings, Havle School and workshops is analyzed in addition to their postings on the official website and Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. The paper examines this empirical material around three key themes, namely LGBTI+ rights, Istanbul Convention (European Convention on Combating Violence Against Women) discussions and the indigenousness approach. By using these three themes, the paper examines how the association challenges various local and global socio-political currents while HWA perceives them as Eurocentric women & feminism illusion, which is boosted by republican ideology and hegemonic, Sunni - orthodox Islam perspective, which is mostly imposed by AKP in Turkey. Specifically, I claim that by challenging AKP’s enforced domination about gender roles and political implications. HWA produces an alternative framework for thinking about women’s issues from an Islam-based perspective. Parallel to this, the organization also serves as the first and only initiation to the practice of modern and global Muslim feminist conceptualization in Turkey. Besides, by challenging mainstream Islamic and secular interpretations of feminism in Turkey, the organization shows the possibility of bringing feminism home by resisting Islam-referenced patriarchy, AKP’s hegemonic domination on gender-related matters and embedded modernization and westernization stereotypes in Turkey. Under the light of these, this study discusses HWA as a new and alternative way to Turkey’s feminist movement. Keywords ·AKP · Gender · Islamic Feminism ·Decolonial Feminism
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
None