Towards cosmopolitan citizenship? Women's rights in divided Turkey

• Published in: Theory and society Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 375 - 394
• Main Authors: Onar, Nora Fisher, Paker, Hande
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.07.2012; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abused women; Basic rights; Citizenship; Cooperation; Cosmopolitanism; Crimes against; Cultural Values; Domestic violence; Empowerment; Equal rights; Family Violence; Females; Feminism; Gender equality; General studies. Ideologies; Group identity; Identity Politics; Left Wing Politics; Liberalism; National identity; Partner Abuse; Philosophy of the Social Sciences; Political behaviour; Political identity; Political sociology; Political theory; Religious beliefs; Secularization; Social activism; Social Sciences; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Turkey; Violence against women; Woman social status. Women's emancipation; Women; Women's rights; Womens Rights; Womens Roles; Turkey; Cosmopolitanism; Identity politics; Turkey; Thick and thin values; Women’s activism; Universal rights; Citizenship; Activism; Woman
• ISSN: 0304-2421; 1573-7853
• DOI: 10.1007/s11186-012-9171-y

Identity politics and citizenship are often envisaged in dichotomous terms, but cosmopolitan theorists believe commitments to "thin" universal values can be generated from divergent "thick" positions. Yet, they often gloss over the ways in which the nexus of thick and thin is negotiated in practice—a weak link in the cosmopolitan argument. To understand this nexus better, we turn to women's rights organizations (WROs) in polarized Turkey to show that women affiliated with rival camps (e.g., pro-religious/pro-secular, Turkish/Kurdish, liberal/leftist) can mobilize over issues like empowerment, violence against women, and education. However, thick readings of these issues inflect upon collaboration. This has spurred pro-religious and Kurdish women to develop strategies that flag their specific concerns. As such, mutual recognition along cosmopolitan lines appears possible—and is reinforced through iterative encounters—but is not necessarily negotiated between equally empowered agents and entails complex processes of contestation and concession-making.