Gendering the Public Sphere: The Female Presence at the Gezi Protests

While women’s organizations in the Gezi protests gendered the public sphere through their feminist slogans, chants and their presence, the authorities seemed to push women back into their homes. Another effort to evacuate the public sphere from women was done via brutal police violence against female protestors, both during protests and when under custody. In this paper it will be argued that such police violence is indeed an effort to discourage women from participating in the public sphere and sending them back to their traditionally gendered duties. Tweets, Facebook and blog posts of female activists and journalists who documented, analyzed and discussed the police violence against female protestors will be analyzed. In addition in-depth interviews will be conducted with lawyers and humans rights organizations’ that gives support for female victims who have been subject to sexual assault, threat or violence.