This paper investigates how the mandate to preserve family unity shapes the institutionalization of women’s rights within the official governmental realm in Turkey. It draws on extensive fieldwork on human rights training programs for state officials, organized by the Turkish government to comply with the requirements for EU membership. I argue that the depiction of women as rights bearing subjects is closely tied to the governance of family and the “logic of masculinist protection” (Young 2003) that underlies the governmental rationality in Turkey. Drawing from my work alongside women’s rights training programs for police officers, judges and prosecutors, healthcare professionals, and religious officials, I show that the official recognition of women as rights deserving subjects is conditional upon their portrayal as passive victims of abuse that are in need of government protection and care. This portrayal at once prevents the recognition of certain kinds of discrimination and violence against women and it excludes certain women who do not fit into the picture of helpless victims from the officially guaranteed realm of rights. Furthermore, even their compliance with the image of passive victim does not always guarantee the protection of women by the state. The message that is given in women’s rights trainings goes hand in hand with government policies that emphasize the preservation of family unity and that consolidate women’s position as primarily located in the family. Tasked with the double duty to protect women and preserve families, government agents who participate in training programs often show reluctance to intervene in situations of violence against women, since intervening often means removing women from the family.