We are here, we don’t fear Feminists counteracting legitimizing myths and authoritarian practices in Turkey to end violence against women

Abstract: Previous literature suggests that the republic of Turkey is transforming from a democracy to an authoritarian country under Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi’s rule. The Turkish government has introduced and implemented a series of events that organizes around the supreme power of the President - one major being the withdrawal from the Istanbul convention. The transformation affects the feminist movement who are depicted as state enemies. This thesis sets out to explore the current political- and socio-legal conditions, under which feminist in Turkey operate, to advance their claim of ending violence against women. Through an eight-week field study in the spring of 2022, I conducted interviews and observations to seek answers to the following research questions: “What legitimizing myths and authoritarian practices can be found in contemporary Turkey?”, “How do these identified myths and practices affect the issue of violence against women according to secular Turkish-, Kurdish-, and Islamic feminists?, and “How do secular Turkish-, Kurdish-, and Islamic feminists counteract the legitimizing myths and authoritarian practices to advance their claim of ending violence against women? ”. My findings suggest that President Erdoğan are trying to create state feminism (in similraity with Mustafa Kemal in the 1920s). Furhtermore, this thesis identify five legitimizing myths: sexism, ethinic prejudice, nationalism, political-economic conservatism, and family values which are underlying political- and socio-legal attitudes that produces the authrotiarian practices of state/police violence, manipulation of information and political centralism which results in increased violence against women, oppression and a gap between the Turkish legal system and legal culture. The feminist movement, of which this thesis include three different strands, tries to counteract these legitimizing myths and authoritarian practices through different strategies (such as legal mobilization and demonstrations) to end violence against women.