Overview
Promoting family-values and being active in campaigns against gender violence in Turkey has made KADEM a focus of gender backlash. KADEM (Kadın ve Demokrasi Derneği in Turkish, The Women and Democracy Association in English) is a government-sponsored Islamic feminist organisation in Turkey. The organisation is seen as an ‘acceptable face’ of women’s rights in the country and promotes conservative family-values in-line with the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi in Turkish) politics. This is seen as deeply patriarchal and opposed to any emancipatory feminist politics.
Purpose of research
The researcher will analyse KADEM’s publications, their media mentions, as well as carry out interviews with Islamic-feminist organisations and Islamic organisations. The aim is to support a network of feminist scholars working against gender backlash to pro-duce more efficient strategies to resist gender backlash in Turkey.