ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 shows how EU funding (de)politicised women’s rights organisations in Turkey between 2002 and 2013. The first part analyses the discursive struggles over two typical and prominent women’s rights issues, namely the right to wear a headscarf and the right to abortion, to draw a picture of the discursive context of women’s organisations which became more hostile towards women’s rights again towards 2013. The second part of the chapter analyses the general work and EU-funded activities of four women’s rights organisations. It shows that most of them pursued three kinds of activities: they provided shelter to women who are victims of violence but they also demanded that municipalities take over these shelters; they conducted so-called “empowerment” projects that focused on the agency of the individual; and they took part in political debates and aimed to raise awareness. They generally tried to re-focus public attention towards violence against women. The author argues that women’s organisations politicised issues and were aware of the political nature of EU funding but also conducted projects that had depoliticising tendencies by focusing on the individual and formal political participation.
