Converging/Diverging Frames: A Case of Islamist Women’s CSOs in Turkey

Year 2020, , 129 - 140, 20.12.2020

Zelal Özdemir Asuman Keysan

https://doi.org/10.46655/federgi.842979

Cited By: 2

Abstract

This study examines the case of two Islamist women's CSOs, AKDER and the BKP, whose agency
transformed under the combined impact of the removal of the headscarf ban and the increasing
authoritarian gender climate in Turkey. Based on data garnered from interviews conducted in 2012
and 2018, it seeks to understand the frames of gender, gender equality, motherhood and work-life
balance that are conceptualised by these two CSOs through the employment of a critical frame
analysis. In so doing it endeavours to understand and compare the change and continuity in the
issue framing of these two CSOs as regards to the feminist movement in Turkey from 2012 to 2018. It
argues that in the new gender climate in Turkey, while the BKP has maintained its position with
regards to the frames of gender equality, motherhood and the work-life balance, AKDER’s current
issue framing is more in tune with the religio-conservative worldview promoted by the ruling regime
in Turkey, demonstrating a clear retreat from its position in 2012.

Keywords

issue framing, gender equality, AKDER, BKP, post-headscarf era

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