Table Of ContentThe Politics of the Female Body in
Contemporary Turkey
Gender and Islam Series
Series Editors
Professor Nadia Al-Bagdadi, Central European University, Hungary
Professor Randi Deguilhem, National Institute of Scientific Research (CNRS), France
Professor Bettina Dennerlein, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Advisory Board
Madawi Al-Rasheed, Middle East Centre, London School of Economics, UK
Kathryn Babayan, University of Michigan, USA
Jocelyne Cesari, Berkley Center, Georgetown University, USA, and University of
Birmingham, UK
Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford, UK
Nadia El Cheikh, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Hoda Elsadda, Cairo University, Egypt
Ratna Ghosh, McGill University, Canada
Suad Joseph, UC Davis, USA
Published and Forthcoming Titles
Queer Muslims in Europe: Sexuality, Religion and Migration in Belgium,
Wim Peumans
Mainstreaming the Headscarf: Islamist Politics and Women in the Turkish Media,
Ezra Ozcan
Masculinities and Displacement in the Middle East: Syrian Refugees in Egypt,
Magdalena Suerbaum
Sex and Desire in Muslim Cultures: Beyond Norms and Transgression from the
Abbasids to the Present Day, Aymon Kreil, Lucia Sorbera and Serena Tolino (Eds)
The Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary Turkey: Reproduction, Maternity,
Sexuality, Hilal Alkan, Ayşe Dayı, Sezin Topçu and Betül Yarar (Eds)
The Politics of the Female Body in
Contemporary Turkey
Reproduction, Maternity, Sexuality
Edited by Hilal Alkan, Ayşe Dayı,
Sezin Topçu and Betül Yarar
I.B. TAURIS
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Copyright © Hilal Alkan, Ayşe Dayı, Sezin Topçu, Betül Yarar and Contributors, 2021
Hilal Alkan, Ayşe Dayı, Sezin Topçu, Betül Yarar have asserted their right under the
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Copyright Individual Chapters © 2021 Hilal Alkan, Ayşe Dayı, Sezin Topçu, Betül Yarar,
Eylem Karakaya, Burcu Mutlu, Nurhak Polat, Şafak Kılıçtepe, Seda Saluk, Azer Kılıç,
Selen Göbelez, Esra Sarıoğlu, Burcu Kalpaklıoğlu, Didem Ünal
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To all women who were subjected to sexual and reproductive violence
and to the feminists whose dedication has given us our rights.
vi
Contents
Illustrations ix
Contributors and Editors x
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction: Changing Regimes of Governing Women’s
Bodies in Contemporary Turkey Hilal Alkan, Ayşe Dayı,
Sezin Topçu and Betül Yarar 1
Part 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
Ayşe Dayı and Eylem Karakaya 17
2 Crafting moral agency in transnational egg donation: The case of
Turkish egg donors Burcu Mutlu 43
3 ‘Fantastic microscopic hair of uterus’: Navigating reproductive
trajectories, biomedical bodies and renegotiation of heterosexual
femininities and masculinities Nurhak Polat 63
4 Feeling like a ‘Misfit’: Kurdish women’s entangled reproductive
experiences in Turkey Şafak Kılıçtepe 85
Part 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 Topçu 103
6 Monitoring pregnancies: The politics and ethics of reproductive
health surveillance in Turkey Seda Saluk 127
7 Egg-freezing narratives of women: Between medicalization
and marketization Azer Kılıç 147
8 Tactics of women up against obstetrical violence and the medicalization
of childbirth in Turkey Selen Göbelez 167
viii Contents
Part 3 Governing the sexualized body: Neoconservatism,
authoritarianism and counter strategies
9 Misogynist Body Politics under the AKP Rule in Contemporary
Turkey Esra Sarıoğlu 187
10 Disciplining pious female bodies/sexualities in the authoritarian
times of Turkey: An analysis of public moral discourses on the
‘Süslümans’ Betül Yarar 205
11 Guiding the female body through the Alo Fetva hotline: The female
preachers’ fatwas on religious marriage, religious divorce and sexual
life Burcu Kalpaklıoğlu 233
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 255
Index 277
Illustrations
Figures
10.1 ‘Veiled Women’s Struggle in the 1990s’ (Başörtülü Kadınların
Mücadeleleri)
Source: https://bianet.org/bianet/kadin/161062-basortusune-
ozgurluk-icin-elele-zincirlerinden-bugune 211
10.2 ‘Never without Headscarf’ (Başörtüsüz Asla)
Source: https://islamipaylasimlar.tumblr.com/post/63391081347/
ba%C5-per-cent9F%C3-per-centB6rt%C3-per-centBCs%C3-per-
centBCz-asla 211
10.3 ‘Süslüman Turkey Is the First in the World of Fashion’ (Süslüman
Türkiye Moda Dünyasında Birinci)
Source: https://odatv.com/susluman-turkiye-3007151200.html 214
10.4 ‘We Have Raised Not Muslims but Süslümans’ (Müslüman
Değil Süslüman Yetiştirdik)
Source: https://odatv.com/musluman-degil-susluman-
olduk-0103151200.html 219
10.5 ‘Moral Pessimistic View on History: Quo Vadimus?’
Source not identified, widely circulated on social media 222
Tables
2.1 Biographical Information on Participants 48
5.1 Brief presentation of hospitals that were subject to the study. These
data were collected during field research. They correspond to the
period 2014–15 for the Public Hospital #1 and Private Hospital #1; the
period 2015–16 as to what concerns Public Hospital #2 and Private
Hospital #2 106
