A book chapter coauthored by Merve Kütük-Kuriş and Sertaç Sehlikoğlu

Sehlikoglu, Sertaç, and Merve Kütük-Kuriş, 2024. “Locating Women and

the Expansion of Islamic Morality in the New Turkey: Anthropological

and Sociological Perspectives.” in The Oxford Handbook of Religion in

Turkey. Edited by Caroline Tee, Fabio Vicini, and Philip C. Dorroll,

Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197624883.013.27.

Abstract:

This chapter discusses the formation of new Muslim female selves in

New Turkey. Drawing on Sehlikoglu and Kütük-Kuriş’s separate

longitudinal field research conducted in Istanbul since the early

2000s, this chapter explores how Muslim women navigate the political

and socioeconomic transformations that Turkey underwent during the AKP

rule. It critically engages with the existing literature on Muslim

women that adopts limited tropes, overlooking the intricate ways in

which Muslim women’s desire for agentive, consumerist, and

entrepreneurial lifestyles complicates notions of modernity and

extends the boundaries of Islamic orthodoxy. The chapter focuses on

Muslim women’s aspirations in the realms of leisure, highlighting how

they propose diverse and contested interpretations within the realm of

Islamic morality. While recognizing that these performances do not

necessarily align with the dominant feminist clusters, we centralize

women’s own interpretations which complicate the underlying thesis of

gendered Islam. We contribute to the literature on Muslim women’s

subjectivity and resonate with anthropological and sociological

scholarship on Muslim geographies worldwide, underscoring the

fluidity, multiplicity, and multifaceted aspect of self-making in the

lives of Muslim women.