A muslim feminist NGO in Turkey: The case of Havle Women Association

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the Islam-based feminist stance of Havle Women’s Association (HWA), its intellectual offerings and unique place in Turkey’s feminist movement. A newcomer to Turkey’s feminist movement, HWA was founded in Istanbul in 2018 and framed itself as “the first Muslim Feminist Women’s Association in Turkey”. The thesis examines HWA as a case study of Muslim - decolonial feminism in Turkey. By engaging with Islamic feminism and decolonial feminism literature, the study aims to investigate whether HWA produces new feminist direction in Turkey, how does HWA formulate its identity towards authoritarian AKP rule, Western stereotyped feminism, and Sunni-orthodox Islam understanding. I claim that by rejecting AKP’s enforced domination about gender roles and political implications, HWA produces an alternative framework for thinking about women’s issues from a Qur’an-based perspective. Parallel to this, the NGO also serves as the first and only initiation to the practice of modern and global Muslim feminist conceptualization in Turkey. Besides, by challenging mainstream women identity formulations, resisting Islam-referenced patriarchy, AKP’s hegemonic domination on gender-related matters and modernization and westernization stereotypes in Turkey, HWA produce an alternative perspective for its working area. Under the light of these, this study discusses HWA as a new intellectual direction for Turkey’s feminist movement.