FAMILIEN: Diskurs og deltagelse i dagens Tyrkiet

Resumé

Lotte Bøggild Mortensen: The Family.

Discourse and Participation in Today's

Tur key

The present article deals with the notion of

the family, and the changing forms of

patriarchy and male dominance in Turkish

society. The empirical data originale from a

relatively well to do middle class apartment

building in Ankara. Whereas several contemporary

studies with a focus on village life

and/or poor areas demonstrate how women

manipulate within horders set by men, few

studies have focused on how wealthy urban

families which are commited to Kemalism,

interact within the nation-state ideology of

the Turkish Republic. The prevalence of

Kemalism since 1923 meant the creation of a

new role model for women encouraging

women to enter public space. This article,

however, aims to show that Atatiirk, the

founder of Kemalism, had no possibility for

- nor was interested in - changing the

private or domestic status of women. The

urban women in this study nevertheless east

their identities for public participation

within the Kemalist ideology. The

patriarchal definition of Islam forms the

local ideology, while the local discourse is

shaped and reshaped with due reference to

the notion of “naturalizing” male power.

Using concepts like speech, silence, eyesight,

order and participation, this article

shows how women in urban households

negotiate male power within the framework

of the patriarchal family.