Religion, Politics and Gender Equality in Turkey: implications of a democratic paradox?

Yeşim Arat

Third World Quarterly, 2010, vol. 31, issue 6, 869-884

Abstract: This article examines the gendered implications of the intertwining of Islam and politics that took shape after the process of democratisation in Turkey had brought a political party with an Islamist background to power. This development revived the spectre of restrictive sex roles for women. The country is thus confronted with a democratic paradox: the expansion of religious freedoms accompanying potential and/or real threats to gender equality. The ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities has been the most visible terrain of public controversy on Islam. However, the paper argues that a more threatening development is the propagation of patriarchal religious values, sanctioning secondary roles for women through the public bureaucracy as well as through the educational system and civil society organisations.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2010.502712

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