(Some) Turkish Transnationalism(s) in an Age of Capitalist Globalization and Empire: "White Turk" Discourse, the New Geopolitics, and Implications for Feminist Transnationalism

This paper proposes that regional feminisms would be productive in avoiding some of the problems of "global feminism" or the co-opted shapes feminist transnationalism might take when it serves the priorities of international organizations or imperial powers. While Middle Eastern feminists would especially benefit from regional transnational links—given the nature of the social, economic, political, and geopolitical challenges that face the women and the people of the region in an age of capitalist globalization and empire—the paper warns that some dominant feminisms in the region may not be up to the task. The focus of the paper is on "white Turk" identity and ideology which have emerged in Turkey since the 1980s and have significantly influenced political and intellectual orientations among intellectuals, including liberal feminists. It is argued that this influence negatively impacts the capacity of liberal feminism both to articulate inclusive

analysis and politics that would address different groups of Turkish women and to relate to other feminist groups in the Middle East.

[A] central aspect of a transnational feminist approach is in its attention to complicity. How embedded are we in the arrangements we describe?

(Razack 2000, 52)