From sit-ins to bureaucratic seats: absorbing pious women into Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates how a pioneering group of feminist theologians and activists—who had offered women-centred interpretations of sacred texts, criticized misogynous practices for being at odds with the original spirit of Islam and launched projects to combat violence against women—came to be included in the bureaucracy of Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, Diyanet. Drawing on interviews with women who were personally involved and an analysis of the Diyanet’s reports and publications (2003–2016) regarding women, the work shows that bureaucratization per se is not necessarily synonymous with the silencing of collective claims or innovative stances. It outlines i) that the first phase of the transition from the pious women’s activism to them occupying positions in the bureaucracy was shaped by cooperation between state institutions and civil society organizations that included feminist activists and ii) how, since 2013, the AKP’s drift towards authoritarianism, the change in power structures within the Diyanet and the redefinition of the relationship between the state and non-governmental civil society organizations have quashed and marginalized progressive and feminist approaches that had initially been included in the bureaucracy.