The Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary Turkey

Description

In Turkey, the Justice and Development Party government has introduced new regulations about reproductive rights, and shifted family and gender policies. Women’s central role in reproductive and domestic work was swiftly reaffirmed, and abortion and IVF were newly debated. Taking Turkey as the case study, this is the first book to examine the various ways neoliberal modes of governing women’s bodies interact with conservative and authoritarian measures.
The contributions focus on reproduction, maternity and sexuality, to explore the three main areas of governmental interventions into the female body. Topics for discussion include: the expansion of IVF and egg markets, the privatization of gynaecological and obstetrical care, differential treatment of poor and ethnic minority women’s fertility/sexuality, and women’s multiple responses to these shifts. While focusing on Turkey, the book presents analytical tools applicable under rising authoritarianisms and conservatisms worldwide.

Hilal Alkan is a researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin, Germany.
Ayse Dayi is the founder and director of Orca Dreams: Platform for Mindful Living.
Sezin Topçu is a senior researcher at the French National Research Center (CNRS-CEMS-Ehess).Betül Yarar is a senior researcher at the Unit of Intercultural Education, University of Bremen, Germany.

Illustrations
Contributors and Editors
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Changing Regimes of Governing Women’s Bodies in Contemporary Turkey
Hilal Alkan, Ayse Dayi, Sezin Topçu and Betül YaraPart 1: Governing the reproductive body: Emerging markets and contested moralities
1. Neoliberal Health Restructuring, Rising Conservatism and Reproductive Rights in Turkey: Continuities and Changes in Rights Violations
Ayse Dayi and Eylem Karakaya2. Crafting moral agency in transnational egg donation: The case of Turkish egg donors
Burcu Mutlu3. ‘Fantastic microscopic hair of uterus’: Navigating reproductive trajectories, biomedical bodies and renegotiation of heterosexual femininities and masculinities
Nurhak Polat4. Feeling like a ‘Misfit’: Kurdish women’s entangled reproductive experiences in Turkey
Safak KiliçtepePart 2 Governing the maternal body: Between biomedical power and neoliberal healthcare
5. Banning caesareans or selling ‘Choice’?: The paradoxical regulation of caesarean section epidemics and the maternal body in Turkey
Sezin Topçu6. Monitoring pregnancies: The politics and ethics of reproductive health surveillance in Turkey
Seda Saluk7. Egg-freezing narratives of women: Between medicalization and marketization
Azer Kiliç 8. Tactics of women up against obstetrical violence and the medicalization of childbirth in Turkey
Selen GöbelezPart 3 Governing the sexualized body: Neoconservatism, authoritarianism and counter strategies
9. Misogynist Body Politics under the AKP Rule in Contemporary Turkey Esra Sarioglu
10. Disciplining pious female bodies/sexualities in the authoritarian times of Turkey: An analysis of public moral discourses on the ‘Süslümans’
Betül Yarar 11 Guiding the female body through the Alo Fetva hotline: The female preachers’ fatwas on religious marriage, religious divorce and sexual life
Burcu Kalpaklioglu 12 Positioning the critical pious self vis-à-vis authoritarian populist body politics: Limits of feminist dissent in pious women columnists’ narratives in Turkey
Didem Ünal Index

“The book greatly contributes to our understanding of modern Turkish politics and will prove to be a resource for scholars and students alike.” —Middle East Monitor“’Captivating book on the complex relationships between women’s bodies and state, medicine, and religion in the new Turkey. An original and fascinating collection of empirically grounded papers on women’s bodies, sexualities, agency, and politics. It provides a range of ethnographies from egg freezings to egg selling, from c-sections to abortion, from fatwas to Islamic fashion. Deeply theorized ethnographies discuss the discourses of sexuality and reproduction. The reader almost hears the voices of women in the beautiful writings of brilliant young scholars. A must-read for scholars of New Turkey, feminism, and sexualities.’” —Dilek Cindoglu, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey

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