In, against (and beyond?) the state: Women’s rights, global gender equality regime, and feminist counterpublics in 21st-century Turkey

The chapter offers an analysis of the feminism-state relationship in Turkey by bringing feminist counterpublics into discussion alongside the state-civil society-transnational governance frameworks. The author argues that while from the perspective of mainstream scholarship, feminist politics in Turkey seems to be in decline, feminist politics even if excluded and marginalised by the state, thrives in the counterpublic sphere as a crucial constituent of the democratic social opposition, and remains a powerful actor in gender politics. Feminist struggles concern both issues that pertain to the global gender equality agenda like gender-based violence, civil rights, women’s economic empowerment and political participation, and those that are rather excluded in the state-civil society-transnational governance triangle such as women’s involvement in peace making, struggles against neoliberalism and for the rights of domestic workers, sex workers, queer and refugee women.