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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

The Cost of Autonomy: The Case of Women Students in Student Dormitories in Turkey

Résumé

This paper explores the connections between state-run student dormitories in Turkey under the AKP government and the reproduction of virginity norms through institutional surveillance of women’s bodies and sexualities. In the recent times, there has been an increasing and widespread media coverage about student dormitories, following the student suicides, the demonstrations against the high housing fees and the new rules regulating moral codes in the student dormitories. In spite of the scholarly recognition of the AKP’s youth politics and its conservative gender regime, the forms of daily resistance and of transgression manifested particularly by young women remain a relatively understudied aspect of the emerging subjectivities in contemporary Turkey. This paper seeks to illustrate how the choice of accommodation is made for and by the young women students attending universities located in different cities than their hometowns, how the living conditions offered in student dormitories are changing under the AKP government and how the young women navigate between their social/sexual autonomy and the strict rules of these establishments which undertake the role of patriarchal family. State-run student dormitories are populated largely by the newcomers and the students with a disadvantageous background, who run the risk of being punished or expelled if they are deemed to be displaying behaviors that threaten or contradict the moral codes. Thus, the compliance is required, but young students find tactics to circumvent it discretely or to protest it publicly. This paper grounds itself on the findings of a master thesis that uses qualitative research methods to investigate the experiences of young women students in Istanbul in regards to the student mobility, generational conflicts and sexual liberty. By using examples from this study, this paper aims to contribute to the growing body of research which reveals the intimate relationship between gender, sexuality and politics.

Domaines

Sociologie
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-03965550 , version 1 (31-01-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03965550 , version 1

Citer

Tuğba Gökduman. The Cost of Autonomy: The Case of Women Students in Student Dormitories in Turkey. Gender and Politics in Contemporary Turkey. Online Workshop, Yale University; Lucie Drechselová; Nur Sinem Kourou; EHESS (Paris); Centre d'études turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques - CETOBaC, May 2022, En ligne, France. ⟨hal-03965550⟩
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