Intersectional Alliances in Turkey

The opposition to gender equality policies is growing in Europe and on a global scale, with increasing attacks on gender norms and violations of women’s and other minority rights. These attacks on gender equality are also important aspects of democratic backsliding. Studies have scrutinized anti-gender mobilization and responses in Central and East European countries and the formation of intersectional solidarity within these processes. However, the literature has not adequately addressed how gender equality actors utilize intersectionality to resist these attacks beyond the European Union countries and shape pro-gender mobilization. This paper will analyze and theorize the consequences of opposition and attacks on gender equality by focusing on how anti-gender pressures have turned feminist resistance into a democratic battlefield in Turkey and assess the role of intersectional alliances in these resistances. Turkey is considered as a case of significant democratic backsliding, and anti-gender mobilizations become particularly visible within the polarized political context. Thus, Turkey presents a good laboratory case to examine responses to anti-gender pressures and the potential of intersectional solidarity to resist democratic backsliding, given the fact that the opposition to gender equality and LGBTI+ rights untangle in tandem with democratic backsliding. The paper also draws attention to the challenges of intersectionality in polarized contexts.