Anti-Feminist Mobilization and Feminist Responses in Turkey

This paper studies the recent encounters between feminist activism and anti-feminist and anti-gender mobilization in Turkey, focusing on the role feminist strategies play in limiting the backlash movement. The paper starts by documenting the evolution of anti-feminist actors, from being a small group connected with the current government to one that now branches out to a far-right wing network in and outside the government. It discusses their digital and street activism demanding to withdraw from international conventions; attacking women’s and LGBTQI+ rights in the streets, media and through legislative maneuver while targeting specific policy areas. The paper proposes that there are three sets of strategies that feminist networks have developed in response to the intensification of the activism, emboldened by government acquiescence and support. First, feminists have focused on retaining and protecting already achieved gains through building large coalitions that bring together women’s groups from different ethnic identities as well as LGBTQI+ groups. Second, they have started developing new digital strategies, combined with street activism, to counteract state repression and criminalization. Finally, they have been attempting to reactivate international channels to create pressure on the current government. The paper concludes by discussing the potential feminist activism has for galvanizing a broader and widespread coalition demanding democratization in an increasingly authoritarian political context. It argues that this will depend on the innovative capacity and resilience of the movement to resist political attempts to delimit and transform the largely reactive spaces available for activism.