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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Neoliberal Body Politics: Feminist Resistance and the Abortion Law in Turkey

Authors : Cevahir Özgüler, Betül Yarar

Published in: Bodies in Resistance

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

This chapter analyzes the anti-abortion biopolitics of the ruling AKP and counter discursive practices of activist groups taking place within the women’s movement in Turkey in recent years.1 It focuses on the debate that emerged with the attempt of the AKP to curb abortion in 2012. We use the term biopolitics to describe the hegemonic struggle over life—the life of the population and the life of the body. The chapter examines the neoliberal policies and discursive strategies that the AKP used to establish social legitimation for its attempt to prevent legal abortions, along with the parameters and limits of the activist groups within the women’s movements that tried to counter the law in different ways. We are particularly interested in analyzing the different approaches derived from distinct strategies of counteracting or engaging with the state’s policies and legislation.

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previous chapter Embodying Change in Iran: Volunteering in Family Planning as a Practice of Justice
next chapter Dialogue: Transgendered Bodies as Subjects of Feminism: A Conversation and Analysis about the Inclusion of Trans Persons and Politics in the Nicaraguan Feminist Movement
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Metadata
Title
Neoliberal Body Politics: Feminist Resistance and the Abortion Law in Turkey
Authors
Cevahir Özgüler
Betül Yarar
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Bodies in Resistance

Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47779-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-47780-4

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47780-4_7

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