International Conference on the Modern Development of Humanities and Social Science (MDHSS 2013)
Biopolitics & the Gezi Protests
Itir Erhart
Istanbul Bilgi University
Department of Media and Communication Systems
Istanbul, Turkey
ierhart@bilgi.edu.tr
on May 31, 2013 in Istanbul as a reaction to the AKP’s
biopolitics and their use of the women’s bodies for state
policies.
Abstract—Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP,
has been using women’s body in implementing social and
economic policies since they came into power in 2002. Male
rooted political power within the party has been creating
regulations concerning sex and reproduction. This paper aims to
explain women’s involvement in the Gezi Park as a reaction to
political intervention with and endogenous control over women’s
bodies.
II. “ABORTION IS M URDER”
Feminist groups have been reacting to the AKP’s belief
that preserving moral and religious values would create a
stable and secure Turkey. AKP has been reinforcing marriage,
reproductive, motherhood, homemaker, and nurturing
functions for women since they started ruling. However, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s closing speech at
International Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD) held on May 24-25 in Istanbul carried the conflict to a
more intense level. Erdogan - who has been asking for 3-5
children from married couples for the benefit of future
generations - declared abortion “murder” and therefore those
female citizens (womb owners) who get abortions
“murderers.”5
Political intervention with and endogenous control over
women’s bodies led to a public reaction from feminists who
started the “My Body, My Choice” campaign. Minister for
Health, Recep Akdag, aggravated the discussion by
responding to this campaign by stating “we care about the
baby’s rights even when the woman is raped. The state will
take care of the child.”6
Keywords-bodypolitics; Gezi; gender; Foucault; abortion
I.
INTRODUCTION
Michel Foucault claimed that sexuality became a political
discourse in the early nineteenth century and during the second
half of the century, the politics of life became an integral part
of state practices.
Through what Foucault called the
“biopolitics of the populations”, political systems asserted
control over human bodies.1 Foucault did not mention gender
in his writings on the relationship between the individual body
and the government, but the conceptual frame of biopolitics he
provided influenced feminist scholars like Butler.2 According
to Foucault, law serves as a normalizing force which is
dependent on heterosexuality, reproduction and family
structure. As such "the status given to the law is precisely the
status given to the phallus, the symbolic place of the father, the
indisputable and incontestable."3 As a result, women's roles in
the state (reproduction and mothering) and their bodies are
normalized by biopolitics:
“If we place sexual and reproductive legislation at the
center of citizenship formation, and understand political
activity as biological passivity - It is the womb that has
become the predominant biopolitical space.4
Sexuality has always been an issue for the Turkey’s ruling
Justice and Development Party, AKP, which has been using
women’s body in implementing social and economic policies
since they came into power in 2002. Male rooted political
power within the party has been creating regulations
concerning sex and reproduction. This paper aims to explain
women’s involvement in the Gezi Park protests which started
Following abortion, the elective cesarean section was made
into a political issue by Erdogan who in May 2012 declared
that he was opposed to the procedure because women who had
it could not give birth to more than 2 children. He repeated
that they needed to have at least three children “for the welfare
of the state.”7
As the abortion and cesarean section debates raged, on
May 27th 2012 Aylin Nazliaka, MP for the main opposition
Republican People's Party (CHP) made the following
announcement: “The prime minister should quit playing
politics over women’s bodies. To put it in a nutshell, I say the
“Erdoğan: Kürtaj bir cinayettir”, Milliyet.com, last modified May 26 2012,
http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/erdogan-kurtaj-bircinayettir/siyaset/siyasetdetay/26.05.2012/1545254/default.htm
6
“Bakan Akdag: Tecavuz bebegine devlet bakar”, Radikal.com, last modified
May
31
2012,
http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/bakan_akdag_tecavuz_bebegine_devlet_ba
kar-1089651
7
“Erdoğan: Kürtaj yasasını çıkartacağız”, Radikal.com, last modified May 29
2012,
http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/erdogan_kurtaj_yasasini_cikartacagiz1089484
5
1
Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France,
1978-1979, translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Arnold I. Davidson
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
2
Judith Butler, Undoing Gender. (New York: Routledge, 2004).
3
Judith Butler, Antigone's Claim. (New York: Columbia University Press,
2000), 21
4
Ruth Miller, The Limits of Bodily Integrity. Abortion, Adultery, and Rape
Legislation in Comparative Perspective. (Ashgate: Aldershot 2007), 27
© 2013. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press
301
prime minister should quit standing guard over women’s
vaginas. This totalitarian regime has brought Turkey to the
point of intervening in people’s private lives.” 8
“Erdogan, Son of a Whore”. Feminists reacted by hanging
signs condemning the use of sexist and homophobic slogans
and asking the protestors to show respect for the prostitutes
chapulling 12 shoulder to shoulder with them. Sex workers
joined the protests holding signs which read “We, the
prostitutes, are a hundred percent certain these politicians are
not our children”. They were trying to undermine the sexist
assumption underlying the mentality against the profession
and but also challenging AKP’s moralism by implying that
what they do for a living is much more dignified than what the
politicians do. The strong presense and loud voice of these
women’s groups at the protests contributed to the reduction of
sexist and homophobic discourse at the park.
In place of Erdogan, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc
responded "I am a shy person, I could get bothered when an
elegant lady looks at me…I also got extremely embarrassed
during the abortion discussions when you, as a married woman
with children [my italics, I.E], openly spoke of one of your
organs [vagina].” 9 This was the final blow for many women in
Turkey who, on social media started posting pictures of
vaginas and tagging Arinc. A few of them took to the streets
and marched against AKP’s biopolitics and their attempts to
regulate the flow of bodies, sexual encounters and sexual
expression in Turkey. It was not until the Gezi Park Protests,
however, that tens of thousands, from all walks of life, got
together to express their discomfort.
Nevertheless, the bodies of women became totems of the
protests. Photographs of the iconic women in red dress, and of
other young women standing in front of a water cannons were
widely shared both on mainstream and social media. Resisting
women were named ‘Miss Turkey 2013’, and the “most
beautiful” among all. The pictures of women who do not fit
the type, i.e., female protestors with hairdos and high heels
who are expected to be apolitical and women with headscarves
who are expected to be bowing to Erdogan’s authority, were
among the most frequently shared images.
III.
THE GEZI P ROTESTS
I arrived at the park on Wednesday 29th to support a small
group of environmentalist and LGBT activist friends in a
handful of tents and one sign asking the government not to
touch their park, trees, dirt, and seeds. When the police
marched into the park with tear gas and water cannons people
from all socio-economic backgrounds came in support of the
protestors. The numbers of the protestors and signs multiplied
every day. A young lecturer in a red dress, carrying a small
shoulder bag, being tear-gassed by the police became the
iconic image of the heavy-handed police involvement and
AKP as an authoritarian father trying to tame its children.
Gezi protests did not put an end to institutionalized sexism
in Turkey nor did it completely transform a sexist and
homophobic culture but it definitely was the largest civil
disobedience we have witnessed in our lifetimes. Women from
all walks of life raised their voices against the roles the
government has assigned to them and rejected the state’s
involvement with their bodies. As a participant observer at the
Gezi Protests and a proud chapulcu I do believe that it will
have a long lasting effect on how politics is done in Turkey
and challenge the authority of the phallus, the male rooted
political power.
Motherhood was one of the most frequently mentioned
discourses at the park. The socialist, feminist collective hang
up a giant sign at the entrance of the park reading “we don’t
owe children to men and to the state”. The AKP government
was heavily criticized for its interference with private lives and
choices of woman. The protesters chanted whether Erdogan
would like three children like them.
REFERENCES
When the governor of Istanbul tried to appeal to mothers’
protectiveness towards their children and asked them to call
their children from the “unsafe” park, a large group of mothers
arrived, not to take their children home but to protest with
them. They were trying to challenge the traditional roles
attributed to them and also disobey the state, by rejecting its
assumed role of the authoritarian father. LISTAG, the
organization of parents of the LGBT children, were also everpresent at the park promoting their documentary “My Child”10
but also rejecting the roles assigned to them by the AKP,
raising “normal” and “healthy” 11 children.
[1]
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2012.
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“Bakan Akdag: Tecavuz bebegine devlet bakar.” Radikal.com. Last
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http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/bakan_akdag_tecavuz_bebegine_devl
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Benim Cocugum. Directed by Can Candan. Turkiye: Surela Film, 2013.
[6]
“Chapulling”,
Wikipedia.
Accessed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapulling
Although body politics were heavily criticized at the park
during the early days, the most frequently chanted slogan was
[7]
“Erdoğan: Kürtaj bir cinayettir.” Milliyet.com. Last modified May 26
2012,
http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/erdogan-kurtaj-bir
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“Erdoğan: Kürtaj yasasını çıkartacağız.”
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[4]
[5]
8
“Nazlıaka: Vajina bekçiliğini bıraksın”, Milliyet.com, last modified May 27
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http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/nazliaka-vajina-bekciliginibiraksin/siyaset/siyasetdetay/27.05.2012/1545561/default.htm
9
“Arınc'tan Vajina Monologları”, Bianet, last modified December 12 2012,
http://www.bianet.org/bianet/siyaset/142743-arinc-tan-vajina-monologlari
10
Benim Cocugum, directed by Can Candan (Turkiye: Surela Film) 2013.
11
On several occasions the members of AKP have rejected homosexuality as a
disease, a biological disorder that needs to be treated.
Butler, Judith. Antigone's Claim. New York: Columbia University Press,
2000.
Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge. 2004.
on
July
27
2013.
Radikal.com. Last modified
2012.
A neologism coined from Erdoğan's use of the term çapulcu ("looters") to
describe the protestors at Gezi Park. Capulcu was rapidly reappropriated by
the protestors, both in its original form and as the anglicized chapuller and
additionally verbified chapulling, given the meaning of "fighting for your
rights”. “demanding justice”. “Chapulling”, Wikipedia. Accessed on July 27
2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapulling
12
302
[9]
http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/erdogan_kurtaj_yasasini_cikartacagiz
-1089484
[10] Miller, Ruth. The Limits of Bodily Integrity. Abortion, Adultery, and
Rape Legislation in Comparative Perspective. Ashgate: Aldershot 2007.
Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de
France, 1978-1979. Trans. Graham Burchell, ed. Arnold I. Davidson
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
[11] “Nazlıaka: Vajina bekçiliğini bıraksın.” Milliyet.com.tr. Last modified
May 27 2012. http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/nazliaka-vajina-bekciliginibiraksin/siyaset/siyasetdetay/27.05.2012/1545561/default.htm
303