Siyasi söylem ve araçsallaştırma: Kemalizm ve İslamcılık'ta idealize edilen kadın imgeleri

This thesis aims to evaluate the post-1980 hegemonic strugglewithin Turkey in the context of Islamist-Kemalist polarization through examining the idealized female images of these two groups. Women has been instrumentalized as a carrier and token of Republican ideals ever since the foundation of the Republic in the 1920s. I aim to investigate how the ideal Kemalist female image and the ideal Muslim/Islamist female image have been instrumentalized in the post-1980 period and in what ways the instrumentalization of these images have not remainedsolely as signifiers of group ideals but have also been used for the social exclusion of women refusing to conform to these ideals through discourse and oppression, as it happened in the case of the headscarf ban. Islamist groups' – which have risen in terms of visibility and political activism in the post-1980 period – idealization of Muslim/Islamist women as an example of "true Islam"and as the means to challenge secularism and the top-down imposition of Kemalist modernity is examined. It is argued that, despite their notable differences, the Kemalist and Islamist discourses' have internalized and reflected similar traditional-patriarchal patterns of behavior in their treatment of women. How these idealized female images are utilized not only in treatment of out-group women but also used in in-group challenges as well and the importance of overcoming these bidirectional exclusion practices are addressed.