ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to depict how this played a functional role in the development of civil society in Turkey. It argues that the post-1980 period was a turning point for women in Turkey. Kurdish feminist groups, who have been politicized both in the political ethnic movement and in the feminist movement in Turkey, sparked an ethnic-based womens movement in Turkey. This movement has shaped up as a challenge both to men, in particular to Kurdish men, and to the Turkish feminist movement, which they saw as a colonialist movement. Feminist groups that consider traditional Islamic norms and ways of living to be threatening for women prefer secularism to Islam in the secularism/Islam dichotomy. Feminist women who feel indebted to the atmosphere brought about by the Republic believe that their ideals can only be achieved in a secular political environment. The political practices developed by feminism as a social and political movement have created a new way of doing politics.
