Top

Hint

Swipe to navigate through the chapters of this book

Published in:

Read chapter Read first chapter

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

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.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

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

Agamben, Giorgio (1998), Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press) Agos (5 June 2012), http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/1584/rahatsiz-erkekler-kadinlar-adina-konusmayi-reddediyoruz, accessed December 8, 2014.

Agos (5 June 2012), http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/1584/rahatsiz-erkekler-kadinlar-adina-konusmayi-reddediyoruz date accessed: 8 December 2014.

Akdoğan, Yalçın (2004), AK Parti ve Muhafazakar Demokrasi [AK Party and Conservative Democracy] (İstanbul: Alfa Yayıncılık).

Akşit, Elif Ekin (2010), “Geç Osmanlı ve Cumhuriyet Dönemlerinde Nüfus Kontrolü Yaklaşımları” [The History of Population Politics and Women in Turkey], Toplum ve Bilim, 117, 179–197.

Aktas, Cihan (2012a), “Kürtaj ve Uludere Kolajı”, [Abortion and Uludere Collage], Taraf, 31 May 2012.

Atlas, Meryem İ. (4 June 2012), “Kürtaja da Karşıyım, Yasağa da” [I am Both Against the Ban and Abortion], http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/kurtaja_da_karsiyim_yasaga_da-1090016, accessed October 4, 2014.

Ayhan, Emine (14 October 2012), “Kürtaj ve Uludere: Sömürerek Öldürme ve Yaşatmadan Öldürme”, [Abortion and Uludere: Killing by Exploiting and Killing by not Letting to Live] http://www.amargidergi.com/yeni/?p=744, accessed August 27, 2014.

Baytok, Cemre (05 June 2012), “Kürtaj Haktır Ne Demek?” [What does Abortion is a Right Mean?] http://www.sosyalistfeministkolektif.org/guencel/feminist-gundem/kurtaj-hakt-r/284-kurtaj-haktir-ne-demek.html, accessed August 7, 2014.

Bianet, http://www.bianet.org/

Bianet, (1 June 2012a), http://bianet.org/bianet/ifade-ozgurlugu/138773-kurtaj-tartismasina-tepkisiz-kalma, accessed December 5, 2014.

Bora, Aksu (5 October 2012a) “Birlik ve Beraberliğe En Çok Muhtaç Olduğumuz Şu Günlerde Kürtaj Yasağı” [The Abortion Ban in The Days When We are in the Urgent Need of Unity and Solidarity], Amargi Feminist Magazine, http://www.amargidergi.com/yeni/?p=726, accessed December 25, 2015

Bora, Aksu (2014), “Bunların Derdi Para” [All That Matters Them is Money] http://tr.boell.org/tr/2014/06/16/bunlarin-derdi-money, accessed June 21, 2014.

Bora, Aksu (2012), “Evet! Uludere”, 6 June, Amargi.

Brown, Wendy (2003), ‘Neoliberalism and the End of Liberal Democracy’, Ch. 3 of her Edgework— Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 37–59.

Butler, Judith. 1989. “Foucaultand the Paradox of Bodily Inscriptions,” in the Journal of Phiolosophy. Eight-Sixth Annual Meeting American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division. Vol 86, No. 11 pp. 601–607, November 1989.

Butler, Judith (1990), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge).

Butler, Judith (1993), Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “ sex” (New York: Routledge).

Cornell, Drucilla (1995), The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography and Sexual Harassment (London: Routledge).

Erler, Özgün (2007), “Neoconservatism, AKP and the Identity of ‘Conservative Democrat’”, Journal of Strategic Researches, Issue 10, 126–132.

Esendemir, S. (2001), “İktidarın Bedeni Bedenin İktidarı”, [The Body of Power The Power of Body], Tezkire 19, 113–118.

Feldt, Gloria (2004), The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women’ s Rights and How to Fight Back (New York: Bantam Books).

Flew, Terry (2012), “Michel Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics and Contemporary Neo-liberalism Debates”, Thesis Eleven, 108(1), 44–65. CrossRef

Foucault, Michel ([1976] 1990), History of Sexuality: An Introduction (New York: Vintage Books).

Foucault, Michel (2003), Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at College De France 1975–76 (New York: Picador).

Fox News (3 June 2012), http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/03/turkish-women-protest-plans-to-curb-abortion, accessed June 12, 2015

Fassin, Didier (2007), “Humanitarianism as a Politics of Life”, Public Culture 19, No. 3, 499–520.

Dirlik, Arif (2012), “Reflections On the Religious Turn in Turkish Politics: Secularism, Biopolitics, Geopolitics” (commentary), New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 46, 239–244.

Gedik, Esra (2015), Trapped in between State, Market and Family: Experiences of Moderately Educated Divorced and Widow Women, Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Sociology, METU, Institute of Social Science, Ankara, Turkey.

The Guardian, (3 June 2012) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/03/turkish-women-rally-abortion-ban), accessed May 3, 2014.

Harvey, David (2005), A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press).

Kaos GL, (19 June 2012) http://www.kaosgl.com/sayfa.php?id=11653, accessed December 3, 2014.

Kasap, Tuğçe (2013), Women’s Wombs as a ‘Biopolitical Space’ inThe Context of Biopolitics of Abortion in Turkey, unpublished MA thesis, submitted to Central European University, Gender Studies Department, Budapest.

Keane, John (1988), Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives (London and New York: Verso).

Kubilay, Çağla (2014), “İslami Muhafazakar Kadın Yazarların Perspektifinden KürtajTartışması: Eleştirel Bir Değerlendirme”, [Abortion Debate From The Perspectives of Islamic-Conservative Female Writers: A Critical Analysis], Alternatif Politika, Vol. 6, No. 3, 387–421.

Kuyucu, Nisan and Öngel, Mehmet Murat, (2014), “Reproductive Rights: New Developments in Turkey”, Conference Paper, World Congress on Constitutional Law 2014 Workshop on Sexual and Reproductive Rights: Liberty, Dignity and Equality.

Kürtaj Yasaklanamaz (Abortion cannot be Banned) Campaign, http://www.kurtajyasaklanamaz.com/, http://saynoabortionban.com/, accessed December 1, 2014.

Kürtaj Haktır, Karar Kadınların (Abortion is a Right, the Decision is Up to Women) Campaign, www.kurtajhaktir.org, accessed December 1, 2014.

Kürtaj Haktır Karar Kadınların Campaign, www.facebook.com/kurtajhaktirkararkadinlarin, accessed December 1, 2014.

Kürtaj Haktır Karar Kadınların Campaign, https://twitter.com/kararkadinlarin, accessed December 1, 2014.

Liberal Democrat Party, http://www.ldp.org/liberalizmin-bireycilik-ilkesi-ve-kurtaj, accessed December 25, 2014.

Miller, Ruth A. (2007a), The Limits of Bodily Integrity: Abortion, Adultery, and Rape Legislation in Comperative Perspective (Hamshire: Ashgate Publishing).

Miller, Ruth A. (2007b), “Rights, Reproduction, Sexuality, and Citizenship in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey”, Signs, 32(2), 347–373. CrossRef

Mor Çatı, (3 February 2015), https://www.morcati.org.tr/tr/ana-sayfa/290-kurtaj-yapiyor-musunuz-hayir-yapmiyoruz, accessed February 5, 2015.

Morgan, Lynn M. and Roberts, Elizabeth F.S. (2012), “Reproductive Governance in Latin America”, Anthropology & Medicine Publication, 19:2, 241–254, To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2012.675046

Newman, Karen (1996), Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press)

Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack (1984), Abortion and Women’ s Choice: The State, Sexuality and Reproductive Freedom (New York and London: Longman).

Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack (1986), Abortion and Woman’s Choice. The State, Sexuality and Reproductive Freedom (London: Verso)

Şişman, N. (2006), Emanetten Mülke: Kadın, Beden, Siyaset, [From Entrust to Property: Woman, Body, Politics (İstanbul: İz)

Smith, Andrea (2005), “Beyond Pro-Choice Versus Pro-Life: Women of Color and Reproductive Justice”, NWSA Journal, Vol. 17, No.1 (Spring), 119–140.

Smyth, Lisa (1998), “Narratives of Irishness and the Problem of Abortion: The X Case 1992”, Feminist Review, 60, 61–83.

Smyth, Lisa (2002), “Feminism and Abortion Politics: Choice, Rights, and Reproductive Freedom”, Women’ s Studies International Forum, Vol. 25, No. 3, 335–345.

Toksöz, Ayşe and Barın, Özlem (06 June 2012), “Kürtaj Toplumsal Bir Hak” [Abortion is a Societal Right], http://www.sosyalistfeministkolektif.org/guencel/feminist-gundem/kurtaj-hakt-r/285-kurtaj-toplumsal-bir-hak.html, accessed August 7, 2014.

Yarar, Betül (2009), Politics and/of Popular Culture: Football and Arabesk Music in the Times of the New Right in Turkey, VDM Verlag, Dr. Müller.

Yarar, Betül (2012), “Kürtaj Yasağı Öldürür, Yaşam Hakkımızı İstiyoruz”, [The Abortion Ban Kills, We Want Our Right to Live], 9 June 2012, http://www.amargidergi.com/node/80

Zaman, Amberin (2013), “AKP Report on Uludere Airstrike Condemned as ‘White Wash”, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/uludere-massacre-kurdish-smugglers-peace.html, accessed May 1, 2014.

Title: Neoliberal Body Politics: Feminist Resistance and the Abortion Law in Turkey
Authors: Cevahir Özgüler
Betül Yarar
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
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