| dc.description.abstract | The thesis is based on (1) 12 semi-structured interviews with NGO representatives two academicians in the relevant field, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative from Turkey, (2) participatory observations in a relevant conference and different SRHR education programs, and (3) collection of documents such as NGOs reports and guide books. It aims to scrutinize (1) the impact of the intimacy politics of the AKP government towards the applicability, structure, and content of the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education programs of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Turkey, (2) and the repertoire of actions of these NGOs, which have been inventing strategies and tactics to negotiate with and resist the AKP government. The discussion will be mostly based on the transformation of the AKP government starting from late 2000s marked by the important events such as abandonment of the pluralistic/liberal discourses previously utilized by the AKP and the rise of anti-abortion discourses as a basis for the policies regulating and discipling sexual and reproductive health and gender equality issues. The AKP government had conducted an immense “women-oriented” (as opposed to current “family-oriented) policy-making process on SRHR issues in the early 2000s. However after the late 2000s, with the increasing authoritarian regime of the neo-conservative intimacy politics of the AKP government, NGOs implementing SRHR education programs have been negatively affected as being the target of the anti-gender and pronatalist agenda of the AKP government. This thesis will be the analysis of this tension between the AKP government and the NGOs in Turkey, which is particularly important because of the fact that it reveals the roots of the regulation of sexuality and the gendered bodies in Turkey. | en_US |
