feminine consciousness in turkey

in turkey there is a distribution of space according to gender, restricting women to

particular areas. ‘women are allocated separate ground space purely on the basis of
gender, and institutional structures are social life and structure, the division of labour
(usually referred to as a sexual division in western sociologies), emerges from the
division of space according to gender and separation (that is, from purity law), not from
economic factors or from specific material relations of production.’(marcus, 1992)
in urban turkey, gender inequality results from the practice of islamic purity laws and
further, that the moral community is based upon gender hierarchy and gender separation.
in the male view, females must be under male control if the moral order of the
community, that is, gender separation, is to be maintained. it is for this reason; marcus
suggested that the moral community based on gender separation that could be shown like
this: male = female is actually slipped onto its side become hierarchical, like this:
male>female.
feminine consciousness in turkey rose in each woman’s paradox of struggling and
possessing their culture, class and political understanding. woman problem is seen in
different classes, cultures and ideologies. feminism participated in the development of the
society by emphasizing equality, difference and public autonomy (Çaha, 2004): in terms
of equality, feminists want to enter the public space on the basis of law, economy and
sociology. feminists believe that, woman should be differentiated than man. based on the
french feminists arguments, they think that woman should have a different discourse and
culture than man due to her life experience and physiological difference. difference
means a revolution in patriarchic culture and in the meaning system to them. feminists
want to pass over the private space obstacle that keeps woman away from public space.
they want to differentiate themselves then men in the public space and live in female
autonomous communities.
turkish feminism has a dichotomy: it serves to the modernization trend of turkish state by
its unique characteristics while forming a civil opposition to the state through its
similarities with western feminism. the historical experience that the turkish women have
is the basis of turkish feminists’ differences. there are two factors in this historical
background; the first is the private/public space separation that started in the ottoman
period, the second is the limitation of woman to private space by giving meanings to
sexuality parallel to the separation. public space, which was a masculine place in
ottoman, was equal to rationality, science, power, independence, war, etc., whereas family
life, which was a feminine place, was a place where man used to rest and have his sexual,
physical and psychological needs satisfied. in other words, family, which is a feminine
place in theory, is in fact a masculine place where man is reproduced, becomes ready for
the other day. woman’s isolation from public space is the second historical experience
that differs turkish feminists from western feminists. in ottoman big cities, women were
kept in harems, where they were only with other women and were living in feminine
communities. the ottoman women who were isolated from economic and political life
held the first woman movement. there was no movement in other cities where there was
no harem life. in these cities, there was a dominance of agriculture, and women used to
have rights as much as men did have. the harem life explains why many feminists,
especially in istanbul, are against lesbian relations and support sexuality freedom. one of
the differences of turkish feminism lies in the ideal for sharing the public space (Çaha,
2004). the private space is accepted as a place of torture, violence in marriage, and the
exploitation of woman’s work; it is the place where patriarchic culture and ideology of
male dominance is created. public space is equal to equality and freedom. they support
sexuality freedom. independence, which is the separation from male dominance in west,
means sexuality for them; it is the sexual freedom. they want to get closer with men
instead of having lesbian relations like western feminists do. sexual freedom means
becoming closer with male body, which is banned in the traditional turkish culture. for
some feminists, it means keeping all the rights of their own body including pregnancy,
marriage, and sexual relationship before marriage. turkish feminists are secular, different
than western feminists. they see the islamists norms and islamist way of living as a threat
to them and prefer secularism to islamism.
feminist movement is divided into two (kader, 2004): first wave feminism raised at the
end of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. in this first period woman
protest showed the inequalities that women were facing in education, work life, social
life, etc. the main idea behind this movement is giving the same rights, which the nation-
state gives to his citizens, to women. thus, first wave feminism is defined as the “equality
feminism” due to women’s will of being equal to men. till 1960 woman obtained their
civil, social and political rights. so there was a national and international silence. second
wave feminism followed first wave feminism. it struggled with the rules of the sexist
system in order to use the rights obtained with the law, in social, cultural, political and
economic life. this second protest was developed to find solutions to the inequalities.
despite the political consciousness of socialist women, woman problem was not a prior
issue in 60s and 70s because of the prediction that its solution was the transformation of
the whole society. though there was a “new role” and “new opportunities” provided by
the reforms during republic period in the 1920s and 1930s, in 1980s women were still in
a sexist system in which there was inequality, dominance and subordination in law
system, education, economic and political life, and in family. for instance, the new civil
law in 1926 secularized the family and improved the social status of woman, however it
still contained patriarchic prejudices. according to this law, man was the leader of the
home and his wife was his assistant. these kind of patriarchic judicial decisions could be
changed after the outstanding the efforts of women in 2002. second feminist wave had a
perspective in which ‘completeness’, ‘multiplicity’, ‘difference’ and ‘resemblance’ was
dominant like in the other societies.

in the first period, woman’s demand of being a citizen, in patriarchic relations, became a
‘rights declaration’ in education, law, economy, politics, etc. new wave on the other hand,
criticized all of the institutions and mechanisms of the society in a sexist system, and
demanded participation. women not only defended their feminist identities in feminist
magazines but also criticized “sexist hierarchy”, “sexist division of labour”, “exploitation
of woman work”, “sexual harassment”, and “violence” in a feminist perspective. the new
woman movement not only marked the 1980’s politics but also played a determining role
in forming a new and more democratic social culture in 2000s. in the modernization
process of turkey, woman movement is also important due to being the fist democratic
reaction of political system after 1980’s coup d’état. this movement developed a social
opposition showing the problems of women; meanwhile it brought a critical perspective
to the old relations and mechanisms in cultural, political, sociological and economic
fields of the society. this approach included questioning the society as a whole and
constructing a new “democratic society project”. in 1990s, it was understood that in order
to save women from male dominance new regulations in family, law, health, and
education were necessary; private space public space separation should be ended. because
besides providing man-woman equality, pressure and dominance relation that leave
woman alone in the private space, should be changed. woman struggle was in need of an
institutionalization.

the modernization period in turkey provided an awareness and critical perspective; that is,
the feminine consciousness. different sub-feminist groups rose regarding social, political,
cultural, and ideological differences. feminists for equality were different in terms of their
defense of kemalist ideology. they wanted women to be in the public space to have the
same rights as men. radical feminists criticized sexist ways of kemalist ideology. for
them, it was important to criticize politics, culture and law. socialist feminists goal was
the transformation of the society and they saw the woman problem as a part of that
transformation. islamist feminists defended woman’s right to cover her head in the public
space, in the work place. however, ‘only a few of these women refer to themselves as
“islamist feminists” mainly because the word feminism in islamist circles is equated with
sexual promiscuity as well as hatred toward family and motherhood.’ (marshall, 2005)
according to most feminists, islamist women are dominated by men; they think that
‘islamist men encourage islamist women to defend the right to cover their heads not
because they want to see publicly active women but to further their view that every
woman in that nation should cover her head.’(marshall, 2005) in 1990s kurdish feminists
were born. thus, there was a transformation of feminism from its totality and monolithic
content to a multiple content including class, ethnicity, language, religion, etc.

regarding islamist feminists, another issue in the feminine consciousness is identity

construction through veiling. ‘veiling is a term that comprises many different ways of
covering feminine charms. mostly the term has been associated with the kind of clothing
that conceals not only the bodily features but also most of the face. the type of clothing
practices prevalent amongst turkish women during the last couple of decades is, however,
different from veiling thus understood. characteristic of the new, most popular
understanding of tesettür (dressing according to islamic advice) is a wide scarf, which
covers the hair and shoulders but not the face (başörtü), and a long wide coat
(pardesü), which conjures away the features of the body. thus, in order
to describe the recent headgear, the common turkish linguistic usage
has not been "peçe", which literally means veil, but başörtü, which
directly translated means head-cover or headscarf.’ (ozdalga, 1998)
there are a couple of issues that have complicated the question of
clothing in turkey. ‘the first, and most controversial one, is related to the fact
that the present constitution (voted in by a referendum in 1982) on the one hand contains
the well-known principles of liberty, namely freedom of thought and belief, and on the
other hand, the principle of secularism.’ (ozdalga, 1998) these principles do conflict in the
issue of veil. in this encounter, the islamists have invoked women’s right to veil
themselves on the principle of secularism when justifying the ban against the veil at
universities and other public offices. another complication is related to hat revolution,
initiated by atatürk. the fact that this law was leveled at men’s, not women’s, garb has
made it less significant during the latest conflicts over the veil.

when the veil was banned in the universities and in the public offices, most of the head-
coverers started to use wigs. although they feel alienated when covering their head with a
wig, they prefer it rather than opening their heads. ‘you become very different in terms of
appearance, and from that time on, your mood changes very much. when you put your
headscarf again you become really happy…you relax, ‘this is me again’ say you. before
buying that wig, i thought about opening my own hair, but my conscious always told me
to buy the wig, because in a way i put that on to cover my hair, not to show my own hair
in the name of religion.’ (a university student in ataman, 2001). some of these women
cover their heads thinking that this is an order of their religion and some of them do it to
protect themselves from men in the public space besides religion. ‘while modernist
women at the end of the last century required the right to take the veil off in order to
become recognized and visible, islamist women living a century later are demanding the
right to veil in order to reach a similar objective, namely higher dignity and
status.’(ozdalga, 1997) they think that the only way of passing to the public space from
private space is the headscarf. they think that covering the head and the body frees
women from being a sexual object. ‘however because they see the female body as a
sexual object, islamist women hide their bodies behind coats and turbans to make them
visible. according to feminists, this attitude toward the body alienates women from being
their own bodies.’ (marshall, 2005) they think that they are as modern as the ‘normal’
women, however, according to secularists there is no place for religion in modernity:
‘they are talking about modernity, but i think people’s ideas should be modern not their
appearances. they think that they can modernize people by changing their appearances,
however they can do that by enlightening them. if they think that they could change ideas
by changing the physical appearance, this is ridiculous. yet, we don’t have any changes in
our ideas. due to our head-cover, people think that all of our social activities, our
emotions are covered as well. they are surprised when they encounter somewhere. why? i
don’t know. for instance we go to theater and they say ‘are you coming as well?’ this
doesn’t make sense; people do have different ideas in their minds about us.’ (a university
student in ataman, 2001,).
another question in the veiling issue is that, ‘ how is that young women who have been
brought up under relatively secular conditions, suddenly change lifestyle and choose to
undertake the obligation stipulated by strict interpretation of the koran?’(ozdalga, 1997).
there was an image that has been flourished in turkish media. it represented the poor,
innocent girl, who is enticed to turn to islam and take on an islamic-grab, thanks to the
manipulation of certain reactionary and economically well-off groups. this may show
that, veiling in this case, is a need for belonging.

in muslim societies, women have been regarded as ritually unclean, due to childbearing
and menstruation. traditionally, this led to the retiring role of women in religious life.
men can do their prayers in the mosque whereas women do pray always at home. women
are not expected to improve themselves in divine matters, religious learning is men’s
responsibility. ‘these traditions are now being criticized by the new generation of veiling
women, who by referring to koran, claim that god doesn’t recognize any difference
between men and women.’(ozdalga, 1997)
feminine consciousness is trying to be increased by the institutionalization process of the
problem as well. in this sense, many associations and formal offices work hard to find
solutions to conflicts regarding woman. kssgm( kadın statüsü sorunları genel
müdürlüğü), kadın emeğini değerlendirme vakfı, women studies and
execution centers in universities, ka-der (kadın adayları destekleme ve
eğitme derneği), kagider (kadın girişimcileri destekleme derneği), ka-
mer (kadın merkezi), uçan süpürge, mor Çatı, başkent kadın platformu,
are some of the examples of these institutions.

references

ataman, kutlug (2001). "peruk takan kadınlar", İstanbul : metis

berktay, fatmagul et al. (2004). türkiye'de ve avrupa birliği'nde kadının konumu:
kazanımlar, sorunlar, umutlar, İstanbul : ka-der
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umutlar, İstanbul : ka-der
Çubukçu, sevgi ulac “1980 sonrası türkiye’de kadın hareketi: ataerkilliğe karşı
meydan okuma” in berktay, fatmagul et al. (2004). türkiye'de ve avrupa birliği'nde
kadının konumu: kazanımlar, sorunlar, umutlar, İstanbul : ka-der
marcus, julie (1992). "a world of difference : islam and gender hierarchy in turkey"
london ; atlantic highlands, n.j., usa : zed
marshall, gul aldikacti (2005). " ideology, progress, and dialogue: a comparison of
feminist and islamist women's approaches to issues of head covering and work in turkey"
ozdalga, elisabeth (1997). "womanhood, dignity and faith: reflections on an islamic
woman's life story"
ozdalga, elisabeth (1998). "the veiling issue, official secularism and popular islam in
modern turkey" richmond, surrey : curzon