The transformations of the regime of intimate violence in Turkey

When and how do regimes of intimate violence change? What lies behind the changes in legal norms and rules concerning the regulation of male violence? How do legislators, jurists, and scholars affect the flows of law with regards to the gendered hierarchies of power? These questions lie at the crux of this study which examines the transformations of the regime of intimate violence in Turkey throughout the long twentieth century. Analyzing the decisions of the Court of Cassation, scholarly, and parliamentary debates and legislation, this study traces the links between masculine power and state power in Turkey and presents an alternative account of modern Turkish history, revealing the extent to which state institutions have contributed to the reproduction of gendered hierarchies of power and marginalization of gendered bodily harms. This study shows that this regime of intimate violence went through various changes since the late Ottoman era and that its history followed a fluctuating course that included major masculinist restoration periods. In my analysis of these changes, I argue that major shocks that led to changes in the structure of the judico-political field or in the stance and standing of actors populating this field were crucial for the changes in rules and norms about intimate violence. This study also highlights the power of legal interpretation in leading to major changes in ground rules concerning masculine domination and underlines the importance of global legal flows in shaping such changes. It also challenges the argument that feminist activism is the more or less straight-forward determinant of progressive changes in policies and legal rules concerning gender violence and shows that -because of the intervening and constraining roles of institutions and male state elites in these institutions- such regimes may become even more tolerant of intimate violence in periods marked by the rise of mass and autonomous feminist movements.