Numerous attempts at characterizing Turkey’s regime type have accorded the politics of gender a marginal place at best. Starting from a reflection on the epidemic-levels of violence against women and on the societal responses to it, this presentation interrogates the links between gender-based violence, political violence and modes of governance that circumvent the rule of law and condone impunity. It relocates patriarchy in the nexus of politics and governance, destabilizing its more habitual association with patterns of culture. It also argues that anti-patriarchal resistance crosses gender lines and mobilizes cross-gender alliances that recognize the links between multiple oppressions based on gender, ethnicity and sexual preference.
