Journal of Research On Women and Volume 10, Pages 23-42 Shifting Subjectivities, © Aslı Aygüneş and Kim Golombisky, 2020 Cultivating Safe Spaces: Reprints and Permission: Email [email protected] Mothers' Perspectives on Texas Digital Library: http://www.tdl.org in Contemporary

Turkey

Aslı Aygüneş and Kim Golombisky, PhD

Abstract Following Ozyegin’s (2015) work on Turkish youth and virginity, this study considers Turkish mothers’ negotiations of the Turkish discourse of virginity. We define the discourse of virginity in Turkey as the historical, cultural, political, and religious ideologies surrounding women’s chastity, which sustains asymmetrical gender relations. Via interviews in 2016, we aimed to understand how seven members of one urban social circle interpret the role of virginity in their lives and the lives of their adult children. The participant mothers, aged 47- 59, were all heterosexual college-educated Muslim women with white-collar careers. Participant mothers discussed virginity from what we interpret as three “tactical subjectivities” (Sandoval, 1991, 2000): modern women who believe in women’s rights, modern mothers who respect their children’s choices regarding premarital sex, and caring mothers who worry about social ostracism from such choices in a society that demands chastity for unmarried women. Tactically shifting among these three subjectivities, participant mothers talked about communicating survival strategies to their children while cultivating safe spaces that empower them to subvert what participant mothers view as repressive aspects of the Turkish discourse of virginity. We frame our analysis with third space feminism understood as subtle practices of resistance emerging from interstitial social locations, such as the participant mothers managing modern secular lives in a religiously conservative society.

Keywords Virginity, Turkey, third space feminism, mothers, tactical subjectivity

Journal of Research on Women and Gender 24

unmarried women who are not virgins are

Introduction regarded as immoral, unclean, and n a 2014 speech, the Deputy Prime undesirable. Tying respect for unmarried Minister of Turkey, Bülent Arınç, said: women to their virginity reinforces a sexual “Where are our girls, who slightly double standard (Essizoğlu et al., 2011; I Kandiyoti, 1987, 1988). For women, even blush, lower their heads and turn their eyes away when we look at their face, becoming the perception of sexual promiscuity can the symbol of chastity?” (Dearden, 2014). produce life-altering social repercussions. The discourse of virginity To protect respectability, then, women circumscribes the lives of women in “choose” to restrain their sexuality and Turkey. Ozyegin (2015, p. 48) writes of the safeguard their virginity (Alemdaroğlu, “significance of virginity as a charged site 2015; Ergun, 2007; Müftüler-Baç, 1999). of control over women’s sexuality” in One could argue that women in Turkey are Turkey. She observes that “the multilayered legally free and capable of making decisions societal transformations of the recent two about their sexual lives. However, Turkey’s decades” is “marked by the emergence of rising religious neoconservatism has public discursivity” on the topic of emboldened authoritarianism “geared “women’s sexuality and virginity” (p. 48). towards ensuring pervasive control of We define the discourse of virginity in women’s bodies and sexualities” (Cindoglu Turkey as the historical, cultural, political, & Unal, 2017, p. 39). and religious ideologies surrounding Ozyegin (2009) argues, “Despite the women’s chastity, which sustains unquestionable significance virginity holds asymmetrical gender relations. for the control and regulation of women’s But virginity is not solely about the sexuality in Turkey, the meanings girls and presence or absence of a hymen. Chastity is women attribute to virginity remains an woven throughout broader aspects of the understudied topic” (pp. 106-107). She has culture, such as modernity, marriage, and shown that contemporary attitudes towards respectability. There are only two virginity among Turkish youth, known as respectable social positions for women in "young circles," skirt strict definitions of Turkish culture: virgin and married. virginity based on chastity by using Neither allows women sexual agency. inventive practices and rationales. Our Namus in Turkish culture ties patriarchal work here adds the perspectives of one to the ability to secure women group of mothers to this literature. We in the family from sexual violation and asked a group of 47- to 59-year-old thereby protect paternity. Thus, heterosexual, college-educated, secular suppressing women’s sexuality becomes Muslim Turkish mothers with white-collar part of Turkish idealizations of gender for careers to share their thoughts on virginity. both women and men. The discourse of Below, we situate these virginity in Turkey is often in the news, economically comfortable and movies, political speeches, legislation, and educationally privileged participant everyday conversations. Virginity is the mothers’ discussions within the modern assumed norm for unmarried women in Turkish political history of women’s rights hetero-patriarchal Turkish society, and as well as contemporary sociopolitical factors implicated in the Turkish discourse Journal of Research on Women and Gender 25 of virginity. Then we introduce Sandoval’s individual autonomy and equality. As a (1991, 2000) tactical subjectivities by way of secular republic with a century of evolving third space feminisms (Bañuelos, 2006; women’s rights, Turkey is unique among English, 2005; Khan, 1998; Pérez, 1999; Muslim countries in the . Yet Shah & Golombisky, 2017; Villenas, 2006; the new millennium has witnessed a Zubair & Zubair, 2017). Tactical political climate seeking to roll back subjectivity describes women strategically Turkish women’s rights. Contemporary changing allegiances to achieve ends in Turkish women abide with these and other social contexts where they do not have seeming tensions. Lived experience, political means. Pérez (1999) calls such however, is always more complicated than practices third space feminism where such facile binaries. agency is enacted by subordinated or Within this milieu, the discourse of silenced voices from interstitial locations. virginity in Turkey can be understood in Both tactical subjectivity and third space terms of a “politics of the intimate,” feminism illuminate our analysis of the regulating women’s sexuality and participant mothers, self-defined as reproduction within Turkey’s modern secular women, who, despite their heteropatriarchal goals of family, religion, privileges, occupy an increasingly tenuous and state (Acar & Altunok, 2013). In position in contemporary Turkey’s “modern Turkey,” “intimate citizenship” conservatism. When speaking about or “reproductive citizenship” draws our virginity in Turkey, participant mothers attention to the ways that struggles to tactically shifted among three subjectivities, control women’s sexuality and which we have labeled modern women, modern reproduction remain “emblematic of social mothers, and caring mothers. Participants’ engineering projects,” including iterations descriptions of their mothering of Turkish nationalism and women’s philosophies in conjunction with the movements (Unal & Cindoglu, 2013, p. Turkish phenomenon of virginal facades— 21). women pretending to be virgins— This process was already under way characterize a politics of virginity moving in the late 19th century at the end of the away from a social imperative toward Ottoman Empire as discourses of science, covert practices of choice. medicine, technology, and industry were increasingly brought to bear on regulating women’s reproductive health—not to Women’s Rights in modernize Turkey but to steel traditional Islamic morality against the dangers of Turkey’s Geopolitical encroaching European modernity (Demirci & Somel, 2008; Unal & Cindoglu, 2013). Milieu Thus, “Puritanism attached to female Women in Turkey live amid sexuality lies at the heart of modernization apparent contradictions: traditional culture, discourse in Turkey,” argue Unal and driven by patriarchal interpretations of Cindoglu (2013, p. 23). The political Islam that prescribe women’s chastity and ambivalence resulting from using logics of obedience, and European culture, democracy to reinforce conservative promoting Western ideas about women’s Turkish values continues to this day. For Journal of Research on Women and Gender 26 example, in the contemporary period, 2011). In the Kemalist social contract, reversing Turkey’s constitutional headscarf women’s rights serve the republic by ban in 2013 was framed by government producing the literal body politic of a officials as a democratic reform recognizing modern secular nation (Arat, 1994; the rights of women wearing headscarves Müftüler-Baç, 1999). Nevertheless, to participate in public institutions and Kemalism remains synonymous with a government, an argument that functioned modernized secular Turkey. politically to divide rather than unite Intimate citizenship for Turkish religious and secular Turkish women women, then, has not changed substantially (Cindoglu & Unal, 2017; Ozkaleli, 2018). in nearly 100 years, despite some After the collapse of the Ottoman adjustments in the interim. International Empire in 1923, republican dispensations discourses of global overpopulation and toward women’s equality did not family planning coincided with Turkish law substantially change the nationalism that legalizing contraceptives, as well as limited urged women to enact their citizenship by access to abortion. However, these rights rearing Turkish citizens. Mustafa Kemal codified into law are not necessarily Ataturk’s Republic of Turkey embraced available to Turkish women in practice modernization practiced as Westernization. (Acar & Altunok, 2013; Onar & Müftüler- In this environment, women became the Baç, 2011; Sümer & Eslen-Ziya, 2017; Unal fertile ground upon which to grow a & Cindoglu, 2013). Nor do such formal modern secular state. Republican women rights depend on promoting women’s were encouraged to enter public political choice, autonomy, or bodily integrity. and professional life via formal education, Rather, even Turkish politicians and which was promoted as key to women’s lawmakers tend to frame support for legal equality as Turkish citizens. abortion in terms of reproductive There were inconsistencies that citizenship, such as medical public health, belied women’s emancipation under the civic public safety, and national workforce new Kemalist republic, however. Women’s economics (Unal & Cindoglu, 2013). entrance into public life depended on During the first decade of the new chastity for unmarried women; for married millennium, Turkey’s now stalled women, the tradeoff meant sexual modesty, European Union (EU) accession project prioritizing motherhood, and fulfilling their prompted gender equity constitutional, obligations to the family and its private civil, and criminal legislative reforms household (Arat, 1994; Gole, 1996; (Müftüler-Baç, 2012). Some of these Kandiyoti, 1987, 1988; Tekeli, 1995; Unal changes addressed sexual violence and & Cindoglu, 2013). Kemalist women were domestic abuse, among other related issues, to be “virtuous, asexual, [and] nationalistic such as polygamy and honor killings, all mothers” (Ozyegin, 2009, p. 106). formerly “taboo” topics for Kemalist Additionally, the women envisioned for feminists (Sümer & Eslen-Ziya, 2017). and who benefitted from Kemalist reforms Penal code references to “morality, came from economically and educationally chastity, honor or virginity were removed” privileged backgrounds clustered in urban (Acar & Altunok, 2013, p. 19). These legal areas, which excluded poor women and changes in the name of Turkey’s EU women from rural areas (Arat, 2000; Jelen, project were praised for replacing “the Journal of Research on Women and Gender 27 notion of protection of public morality (Arsu, 2012). Erdoğan has said that with protection of the individual, and in hindsight Turkey should have re- his/her sexual and bodily integrity” (Acar criminalized adultery and extra-marital sex & Altunok, 2013, p. 19). in 2004, regardless of the EU application Paradoxically, this legal progress (Smith, 2018). occurred under the socially conservative, Islam-informed, and anti-feminist Justice and Development Party (JDP, a.k.a. AKP, The Turkish Discourse of based on the Turkish-language acronym). Virginity The JDP/AKP became Turkey’s ruling Against this backdrop, women in party in 2002. The failed EU application is Turkey navigate the discourse of virginity, owing in part to the JDP/AKP’s support of regulated by religion, family honor, and regressive gender ideologies and its women’s social respectability achieved regime’s increasing suppression of political through marriage. “In Turkey, woman’s opposition. The JDP/AKP’s success has chastity remains the most important been supported by a conservative Islamic control mechanism over female freedom,” constituency, although the JDP/AKP is wrote Müftüler-Baç (1999, pp. 308-309). not formally linked to Islam. President Alemdaroğlu (2015, p. 57) writes of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s consolidation of “norm of chastity and its close link with the power has included constitutional changes honor of the family.” Kavas and Gündüz- to Turkey’s checks and balances among the Hoşgör (2013, p. 59) note that across branches of government, as well as quelling Turkish socio-economic classes, “namus dissent and free speech, Turkey’s (honor),” referring to the “chastity or independent press, and academic freedoms sexual purity” of women remains relevant for Turkish state universities, especially to both the status of women and mothering since the failed military coup in July 2016. practices in Turkish family life. Cindoglu and Unal (2017, p. 41) The key to understanding virginity argue that over the past decade “the in Turkey is understanding that respectable discursive regulation of women’s bodies women cannot be sexual outside of and sexualities” has functioned to rally heterosexual marital reproduction. Ozyegin conservative political power in Turkey. (2009, 2015) describes a continuum of Erdoğan’s pro-natal regime combines virginities in contemporary Turkey. conservative religious rhetoric with Traditionally, a virgin is a kiz, a “girl,” concerns about Turkey’s low birth rate. understood as desexualized, unmarried, Erdoğan is on the record for public hymen intact. “Technical virgins” are statements claiming women and men by unmarried women who engage in intimate nature are not equal (Agence - sexual relations but not intercourse. Presse, 2014), patriotic women should bear “Virginal facades” refer to unmarried at least three children (Cetingulec, 2015), women who engage in sexual relations but working women who do not bear children lie about it. Among these, unmarried are only half persons (Bruton, 2016), women might consider themselves to be contraception is treasonous (Yeginsu, “moral virgins” rather than physical virgins 2014), cesareans should be illegal (Ahmadi, because their sexual activity occurs in 2012), and abortions are equivalent to mass committed heterosexual relationships. Journal of Research on Women and Gender 28

Virginity is mostly assumed to be moot for While marriage is a woman’s means out lesbians who then are pathologized, of gaining social respect, the family regardless of where they actually fall on the enforces family honor and defines the ways continuum, unless they are deploying women can bring shame to the family, heterosexual facades, in which case including premarital and extramarital sex. freedom of movement will be constrained Women’s bodies are preserved, monitored, by the social rules dictated by the and asexualized for the honor of the family heteronormative discourse of virginity. (Cindoglu, 1997; Gelbal, Duyan, & Ozturk, In Islam, premarital sex is forbidden 2008). Damaging family honor can for both ; however, women bear seriously threaten women, such as the burden more than men. In alienation from the family, loss of self- predominantly Muslim Turkey, women live esteem, suicide, domestic violence, and under pressure to protect their virginity and murder (Ergun, 2007; Sakalli-Ugurlu & even prove it through virginity Glick, 2003). Given such pressure and examinations, although forced virginity danger, women comply with traditional examinations became illegal in 1999 norms to avoid risking their lives by (Ayotte, 2000; Ergun, 2007; Parla, 2001; shaming their families. This pressure in part Sakalli-Ugurlu & Glick, 2003). Women explains Turkey’s high rates of vaginismus, learn to restrain and hide their sexuality a sexual disorder resulting from (Gelbal, Duyan, & Ozturk, 2008; Sakalli- psychological pressure to preserve one’s Ugurlu & Glick, 2003). Turkish women virginity (Tugrul & Kabakci, 1997; Yasan who engage in premarital sex face dire & Akdeniz, 2009). ramifications, such as alienation, exclusion, However, some argue that young and victimization not just by society, but women’s perspectives on virginity are also by the family (Bekker et al., 1996; changing (Ellialti, 2008; Ozyegin, 2009, Ergun, 2007). Families who know that their 2015; Yalcin, Aricioglu, & Malkoc, 2012). daughters are virgins support their children Although Turkish society still subscribes to emotionally, but emotional support from conservative notions regarding the the family can decrease when a daughter is preeminence of the family, young women known to have engaged in premarital sex in Turkey increasingly adopt more Western (Yalcin, Aricioglu, & Malkoc, 2012). lifestyles, particularly among affluent Forbidding premarital sex as educated urban families (Yalcin, Aricioglu, shameful is related to the importance of & Malkoc, 2012). Agreeing with Bayat’s marriage in Turkish society. In Turkey, (2010) thesis on How Ordinary People Change marriage is the means by which women the Middle East, Alemdaroğlu (2015) gain social and legal status and documents young Turkish women respectability (Ergun, 2007). A woman’s successfully bending the rules of Turkish virginity is a prerequisite for attracting the feminine respectability to achieve best husband, thus securing the best individual aims, albeit enacted differently possible marriage (Millar, 2008). As such a across socioeconomic status. How Turkish valuable resource, virginity is guarded by women embody and resist Turkish families, thus by daughters, even if their respectability politics differs by class, only access is via a facade. achieved by but also determining level of education, access to financial resources, Journal of Research on Women and Gender 29 community standards and levels of and virginal facades. These apparent surveillance, and family political affiliations, contradictions led us to read the Turkish etc. (Alemdaroğlu, 2015; Beşpınar 2010; participant mothers’ social location Kavas & Gündüz-Hoşgör, 2013; Müftüler- through “third space feminism” (Bañuelos, Baç, 1999; Ozyegin, 2009, 2015). 2006; Khan, 1998; Licona, 2005; Pérez, Despite class and other differences, 1999; Shah & Golombisky, 2017; Villenas, Turkish women do question oppressive 2006; Zubair & Zubair, 2017). Third space norms and traditions, including religious, feminism provides “a mechanism for state, and family control of women’s sexual pulling into relief lived human-scale agency and experience (Ellialti, 2008). One interstitial realities” (Golombisky, 2015, p. result is “virginal facades,” women 406). Third space feminism then led us to pretending to be virgins to maintain their understand the participant mothers’ mobile respectability. Artificial virginity, including ideas about virginity in terms of Sandoval’s reconstructive surgery, is a way Turkish (1991, 2000) tactical subjectivities. women choose to hide premarital sexual Sandoval’s (1991, 2000) “differential encounters and prevent alienation (Bekker consciousness” famously described et al., 1996; Cindoglu, 1997; Ellialti, 2008; “tactical subjectivities” among U.S. women Ozyegin, 2009, 2015; Sakalli-Ugurlu & of color shifting their alliances across Glick, 2003). Ozyegin (2009, 2015) treacherous circumstances to achieve documents educated young women in situational political ends. Pérez (1999, p. Turkish society who believe it acceptable to xvi) writes: “Sandoval theorizes that engage in intimate sexual practices outside differential consciousness allows for of marriage if they do so in a loving long- mobility of identities between and among term relationship or with some kind of an varying power bases… I argue that the emotional investment in the relationship. differential mode of consciousness to In the present study, the participant which Sandoval refers is precisely third mothers echoed this sentiment. Despite space feminist practice.” Third space changing sexual attitudes among the young feminism is mostly attributed to post- women in Ozyegin’s work and among the colonial Chicana feminists (Anzaldúa, mothers of adult women in the present 1987/2012; Bañuelos, 2006; Pérez, 1999; study, preconditions to premarital sex in Sandoval, 1991, 2000; Villenas, 2006). Turkey persist as a woman’s sexuality However, Muslim women’s lives also have remains tied to having a monogamous been interpreted in terms of navigating relationship as a prelude to marriage. third spaces (Khan, 1998; Shah & Golombisky, 2017, Zubair & Zubair, 2017). Third Space Feminism and Anzaldúa’s (1987/2012) Tactical Subjectivities “borderlands” refers the interstitial Turkey and women in Turkey abide contexts and practices of daily existence along axes transversing Europe and the where marginalized women might still Middle East, tradition and modernity, oppose and rebel against dominant namus and individualism, the Muslim faith discourses of gender, sexuality, race, and secular women’s movements, and kiz ethnicity, religion, and nationality, and thus surreptitiously exert a measure of Journal of Research on Women and Gender 30 independent will even as they are socially deployed by U.S. women of color, invisible, subordinate, or untouchable. marginalized by not only society but also Similarly, Pérez (1999) defines third spaces women’s movement and Black as obscured social locations hidden in Nationalism. Tactical subjectivity is a mode between typical socially constructed of strategically making political coalitions in binaries such as private–public where order to endure in unfriendly women quietly rebel and over time circumstances and advance agendas. sabotage the dominant order. Pérez writes Differential consciousness and tactical that “women as agents have always subjectivity, according to Sandoval, are constructed their own spaces interstitially, flexible strategies for being nimble enough within nationalisms, nationalisms that often to change gears across changing miss women’s subtle interventions”; such sociopolitical landscapes. Tactical interventions she describes as “third space subjectivity enacted from third spaces helps feminism-in-nationalism” (p. 33). explain the ways the Turkish participant Golombisky (2015, p. 407) writes, “Third mothers negotiated their ideas about space agency communicates by way of women’s equality, talked about supporting mischievous, disobedient practices that and guiding their children’s independent resist, disrupt, and displace authority, choices regarding premarital sex, and said history, and canon (Bañuelos, 2006; they work to protect their daughters from Bhabha 1990; Khan, 1998; Licona, 2005; emotional pain and social ostracism. Pérez, 1999; Villenas, 2006).” In the present case, the open-minded parenting described by the nonetheless economically Participant Mothers secure participant mothers was employed In July 2016, days before the attempted cautiously. However, we argue, this open- military coup, the first author interviewed mindedness does more than enable social each of seven cisgendered heterosexual change in the next generation; such Turkish secular Muslim participant parenting also represents social change. mothers, ages 47-59, regarding their Mothers communicating their resistant and perceptions of the Turkish discourse of even subversive beliefs in relationship with virginity. The project was IRB-approved in their children becomes an intergenerational Turkey and the U.S. The interactive third space feminist pedagogy empowering conversations were conducted in Turkish their children to enact those beliefs in Turkey. Members of the same social (Villenas, 2006). circle, the participant mothers were English (2005, p. 87) writes that the married, widowed, or divorced. Six of the “third-space practitioner strategizes and seven participant mothers had at least one shifts to meet the needs of the situation.” daughter. All the participants’ children are Sandoval’s (1991, 2000) description of heterosexual. The participant mothers are tactical subjectivity helps us to interpret the all identified by pseudonyms: participant mothers’ sometimes • Berrin, 51, a retired journalist with a inconsistent ideas about virginity as teenage daughter in private school pragmatic instead of unreliable. Sandoval • Elif, 55, a retired banker with two (1991, 2000) defines differential adult daughters, one in graduate school consciousness as adaptive affiliation Journal of Research on Women and Gender 31

abroad and the other practicing medicine Modern Women, Modern • Pervin, 59, a retired English teacher Mothers, and Caring with one daughter in graduate school abroad Mothers • Damla, 50, an English language Threaded through our professor with a daughter in college interpretation of third space feminism • Ceyda, 52, a public-school (Pérez, 1999), the participant mothers’ mathematics teacher with a daughter in shifting positions on virginity can be medical school understood as “tactical subjectivities” • Melis, 47, high-school mathematics (Sandoval, 1991, 2000), which, in turn, teacher, with a daughter and a son, both might participate in creating the social in college change the participant mothers said they • Ipek, 54, a school teacher with an are witnessing. These Turkish mothers adult son negotiated the discourse of virginity in Turkey from three different but always Recruited as a homogenous snowball exclusively heterosexual subjectivities: sample from the same social circle, the modern women in the Kemalist tradition of participant mothers shared educational, Turkish , urbane “Western” professional, and economic privilege, modern mothers who support sexual agency despite their subordinate age and gender for their children, and secular Muslim caring status. Throughout the interviews, the mothers who worry about the social participant mothers talked about virginity consequences of their children’s premarital in connection with modernity in Turkey. sex in an increasingly conservative and All the participant mothers self-identified religious political climate. In doing so, the as “modern” women who subscribe to participant mothers portrayed the secular Kemalism, particularly on women’s complicated structure of Turkish society issues; they all voiced concern about the when it comes to the discourse of virginity, increasing conservatism dominating if only in heteronormative terms. Although politics and social life in Turkey. the participant Turkish mothers spoke Additionally, as educators, five participant from privileged economic and cisgendered mothers offered first-person observations heterosexual social positions and although regarding Turkish “young circles” and their experiences of oppressions are youth culture. After several iterations of different from the women Sandoval (1991, analysis, three themes emerged: Turkey as a 2000) describes, the participant mothers’ country in flux, participant mothers’ interview transcripts demonstrate them hedging their positions on virginity, and describing strategies of persistence and wider social change regarding attitudes resistance for themselves and on behalf of toward and enactments of virginity in their children within the complex, Turkey. multilayered Turkish sociopolitical system.

Journal of Research on Women and Gender 32

Damla, however, continued by Modern Women raising questions about men’s Participant mothers identified virginity: modernity in relation to Mustafa Kemal Of course, the same applies for males Ataturk’s historical efforts to modernize too, I mean, they lose their virginity, and Westernize Turkey and prioritize too. If a male is a virgin, we can say secularism. When they spoke as modern that he has never had sex before. women, participant mothers talked about losing virginity as both a physiological state Berrin, the 51-year-old retired and a social taboo tied to morality and journalist with a teenage daughter, also marriage. Participant mothers as modern emphasized the importance of gender women described virginity as an outdated parity in her discussion of virginity: and oppressive discourse in contemporary If people manage to see women and men as Turkish society. In modern women mode, equals, it will be easier to get rid of the idea of their discussions of virginity favored virginity. I mean we talk about a woman’s women’s agency and freedom to choose in virginity, but if we see them as equals then we matters of sexual conduct, including need to talk about a man’s virginity, too. premarital sex and cohabitation. Participants as modern women Speaking as modern women, emphasized the importance of gender participant mothers also disagreed with the equality when talking about virginity. They prerequisite of marriage in a woman’s recognized a gender double standard when sexual life. They said that marriage should it comes to virginity. They argued that not be the ultimate goal for women and although men, too, begin their sexual lives that women should be free to have as virgins, the Turkish discourse of virginity premarital sexual experiences if they continues to derive almost exclusively from choose. Melis, the 47-year-old teacher with the status of the hymen, which is a daughter and a son, talked about her oppressive for women. For example, experience of being a virgin when she Damla, the 50-year-old teacher with an married her husband. She said she did not adult daughter, began her discussion of the have premarital sex because social norms Turkish understanding of virginity with a expected her to remain chaste until she nearly clinical heteronormative description married. She said this way of thinking is of the hymen: damaging because women are left sexually When I think of virginity, the first inexperienced, which risks couples being thing that comes to my mind is the sexually incompatible: “But this was very hymen. Losing virginity means wrong in so many ways. A woman should that penetration occurred and the get to know different men before getting hymen stretched open. It means a married.” From a modern woman’s girl had sex. When a hymen is perspective, sex should not be tied to stretched open, it means there was marriage, according to Melis. a relationship, a sexual When talking about marriage, relationship with a male. participant mothers, including Melis, emphasized the importance of “getting to know” partners prior to marriage. In these Journal of Research on Women and Gender 33 responses, “getting to know” was a discrete mode encapsulates participant mothers’ way to refer to sexual relations. Ceyda, the emphasis on responsibility and “making 52-year-old teacher with an adult daughter, good decisions,” as well as the importance said that couples should be able to live of privacy and safety in the society—all together before getting married and society demonstrating the participant mothers’ should accept it. She said that marriage anxiety regarding their children’s decisions. should not be the condition for having sex: Participant mothers switched back and “I didn’t have sex before getting married. I forth between modern mother mode and caring thought it wouldn’t be acceptable. Before mother mode in conversations about their marriage it is important that partners make children. sure they know each other. This is a great As modern mothers, participant way to prevent marital problems.” mothers talked about providing their The way participant mothers talked children with the support systems they about sex as a part of “getting to know” a need to thrive in Turkey, where familial partner shows how they employ a modern support is crucial for women to avoid perspective to challenge marriage as a alienation, exclusion, and victimization precondition for sexual intimacy or losing (Yalcin, Aricioglu, & Malkoc, 2012). In the one’s virginity, and they even embrace the present case, this was especially so when far more radical idea of a respectable daughters lost their virginity out of woman having sexual appetites, regardless wedlock. Participant mothers’ modern of marital status. Although participant approach to supporting their children’s mothers began their discussions of virginity choices is necessary to the survival of their from their personal experiences and their children in a society with conservative opinions as modern women who believe in views regarding sexual practices. All the gender equality, they switched to a mother’s participant mothers said that they respected perspective when talking about their their children’s ideas about virginity and children’s virginity. This tactical shift in their children’s choices. subjectivity was not about enforcing a Although participant mothers generational double standard even as they deployed a modern mothering approach to rejected gender double standards. Rather, virginity, as caring mothers they proposed this shift from championing gender certain conditions for sexual freedom. Such equality to advising caution in flouting conditions were framed not as ways to limit social mores reflected parental concerns for adult children’s freedom, particularly in the the wellbeing of their children. case of daughters, but instead to protect them from marginalization in Turkish society. All participant mothers mentioned Modern Mothers and teaching their children to make healthy, Caring Mothers well-informed, and careful decisions. Modern mother mode refers to For example, Elif, the 55-year-old participant mothers’ acknowledging their retired banker with two daughters, noted children’s agency and distancing that even though she respects her themselves from their children’s sexual daughters’ choices, it would be better for choices. On the other hand, caring mother them to remain virgins until they get married. As a modern mother, she said, “They Journal of Research on Women and Gender 34 can make their own decisions as adults.” relationship as a condition of premarital sex But as a caring mother, she said: “But I would to avoid the impression of promiscuity. want them to be traditional. There should Participant mothers became modern be [gender] equality… But if you are living women when talking about their personal in Turkey, there is no other choice. Women politics on the topic of virginity, modern need to protect their virginity in order not mothers when initially speaking about how to lose their respected status.” they perceived their children’s Similarly, Pervin, the 59-year-old independence and agency in choosing retired teacher with an adult daughter, when to lose their virginity, and caring emphasized the importance of her daughter mothers when worrying about their being in a satisfying relationship with children’s social acceptance and happiness someone who respects her daughter’s in a relationship. Through shifting among choices: “I want her to make her decisions these subjectivities, the participant mothers carefully. I know it’s her life. But I don’t seemed to cobble together safe supportive want her to be sad later. She should be with familial relations so their children can make someone who is right for her, who won’t sense of virginity and resist the dominant make her upset or regret her decisions.” ideology around it. Ceyda emphasized the importance of emotional involvement and respect in her daughter’s relationships. “It’s up to Changing the Discourse of her,” said Ceyda, in modern mother mode. But Virginity Ceyda continued in caring mother mode: “I Claiming they are witnessing just want her to live her life without progressive social change regarding burning herself out. Because when you Turkish sexual practices, participant look at Turkish men, it is very hard to find mothers talked about their perceptions that someone who respects you. I don’t want Turkish youth are increasingly engaging in her to be emotionally hurt.” premarital sexual experimentation. In all the interviews, participant Participant mothers also discussed the mothers communicated their belief in the existence of virginal facades. Through importance of respect, safety, care, and choosing to lose their virginity and lying happiness in relationships, which is why about it, Turkish women as virginal facades they tell their daughters to “make good challenge the normative understanding of decisions.” During the interviews, “making virginity and the Turkish patriarchal good decisions” was a euphemism for expectation that women remain sexually being in a committed relationship before chaste until the moment when heterosexual losing one’s virginity out of wedlock. marriage is consummated. “Making a good decision” reflects a Bhabha (1990) and Pérez (1999) respectful and caring relationship draw attention to how social change guaranteed by emotional attachment, as emerging out of third spaces—interstitial, opposed to a casual sexual encounter. between, or invisible social locations or Participant mothers said when they talk positions—can manifest subtly because with their children, they emphasize the such spaces are assumed to be powerless, importance of being in a committed irrelevant, or nonexistent. Although social Journal of Research on Women and Gender 35 conservatism currently dominates Turkish Turkish society, but also perpetuates the politics, the participant mothers said they repressive discourse of virginity in Turkey. have seen progressive change regarding But the participant mothers did cast how virginity is perceived, talked about, virginal facades as agents of change. practiced, and embodied. All the Ozyegin (2009, 2015) also argued that the participant mothers said losing virginity young virginal facades in her study reflect a outside of marriage remains a Turkish changing society among college-educated social taboo that limits women’s sexuality. women in Turkey, which she attributes in However, participant mothers also said that part to their education. some women simply lie about their virginity In the present study, participant to be respected in the society and that mothers identified morality and young people do not think virginity plays respectability as the reasons why Turkish an important role in their happiness. women employ “virginal facades.” Consequently, according to the participant Participant mothers disagreed with mothers, attitudes toward virginity are conventional wisdom that Turkish women slowly changing in some social circles, even only gain respect by being either married or though this change is not obvious or openly a virgin. One of the teacher participants, acknowledged in the society. This cautious Melis argued that women lie about virginity optimism must be tempered with a because losing virginity is socially reminder that most of the participant unacceptable: mothers have or had careers as teachers in They say virginity is morally right, but actually Western Turkish cities, giving them first- it’s not what they think. Not many people are hand yet limited experience observing virgins. In Turkey, people have two masks. social transformation among urban Turkish People don’t show who they really are or say "young circles." what they actually think. They choose to pretend Some participant mothers cited the like they are virgins. existence of virginal facades as evidence of contemporary change in the Turkish Elif, the retired banker, shared this discourse of virginity. Although virginal view. She said that “virginal facades are facades do not openly contest an necessary and not rare.” Elif articulated the asymmetrically gendered sexual contract in pressure that respectability exerts on Turkey, by losing their virginity before Turkish women. She argued that Turkish marriage and lying about it, virginal facades women, in the name of respectability, have do subvert the contract and enact social no choice but either to sacrifice their sexual change. Another interpretation, however, freedom or to lie about their virginity. She might argue that women do not “choose” said: “Being a virgin also provides to pretend to be virgins in order to be respectability for a woman. Women choose subversive; women are forced to pretend to be dishonest to be freer and more given the high probability of harsh social comfortable in the society.” penalties for openly defying social As a successful pretense to expectations. Moreover, the existence of complying with social norms, virginal virginal facades, as well as the rise of hymen facades can be understood as “doubling” reconstructive surgery in Turkey, not only from within third spaces (Pérez, 1999). proves that virginity remains important in Acts of doubling “seem to mimic the social Journal of Research on Women and Gender 36 order’s rules while changing them” (Shah & schools. Compared to young people living Golombisky, 2017, p. 17); “those without in more conservative rural and especially social status or power perform social Eastern regions of Turkey, the more change right under the noses of the European and cosmopolitan Turkish youth dominant, privileged, and/or oppressive might not feel the same extended family groups in power” (pp. 5-6). Even though and community pressures in their lives and unmarried non-virgins do not openly admit so enjoy more freedom. In the opinions of they have broken a taboo, they indeed got the participant mothers, however, in their away with it. Getting away with it modern women mode, virginity is not valued repeatedly over time eventually effects among urban “young circles” and young change (Bhabha, 1990; Pérez, 1999). people are subverting the discourse of Participant mothers also virginity in Turkish society by viewing it as emphasized how young people, or “young irrelevant to their lives. We argue this circles” in the literal translation from change the participant mothers observe is Turkish, increasingly do not give credence made possible by people such as the to virginity. This argument by the participant mothers, who resist the participant mothers serves as another discourse of virginity and respect their indicator of social change already occurring children’s agency. in Western urban Turkish society. A 55- year-old high school English teacher with an adult son, Ipek said: “I look around, and Conclusion I see that virginity is not important When talking about virginity in anymore. Teenagers can think more Turkey, the participant mothers spoke critically and reject oppressive limitations.” from three subjectivities, which we have Participant mothers said that described in terms of Sandoval’s (1991, Turkish youth do not consider virginity 2000) shifting tactical subjectivities. important to their happiness. Participant Participant mothers as modern women argued mothers shared their belief that young for gender equality in human sexuality. But, people resist the discourse of virginity as modern mothers, they also emphasized their through sexual experimentation and by preference for committed long-term losing their virginity at an earlier age and relationships as a condition for their before marriage. However, the "young children’s premarital sex. Positioned circles" and Turkish youth that the between resisting compulsory virginity and participant mothers refer to likely share the protecting their children, participants in same urban social status as the participant caring mother mode hedged their bets by mothers who speak from privileged urging caution with regard to practicing educational, professional, and economic sexual freedom. While shifting among these positionalities. The participant mothers’ subjectivities, the participant mothers also generalizations about contemporary described Turkish “young circles” who do Turkish youth, then, likely come from and not revere virginity as in the past. Although are limited to the participant mothers these “young circles” referred to observing their own children’s "young economically comfortable urban youth in circles" as well as, in the case of the five Western(ized) Turkey, the participant participant teachers, students in their Journal of Research on Women and Gender 37 mothers’ observations still reflect some By bringing the participant mothers’ measure of social change in Turkey. We perspectives on virginity into the literature argue that by respecting their heterosexual on Turkish “intimate citizenship” (Unal & children’s sexual agency, participant Cindoglu, 2013), the present work also mothers, also heterosexual, offer a safe brings together wider public negotiations space where their children can choose to of virginity, which situate it as women’s challenge the Turkish discourse of virginity. most valuable trait, and Turkish women’s Thus, by encouraging and enabling their personal perceptions of virginity, which children to break from strict social mores propose a more liberated understanding of on premarital sexuality, the participant women’s sexuality. But we recognize the mothers are participating in the social limitations of documenting one privileged change they say they are witnessing. social circle. We also recognize that the Interpreted through Pérez’s (1999) presumption of heterosexuality was central third space feminism, the participant to participant mothers’ views. Their mothers can be understood as deploying definitions of virginity focused on vaginal resistant tactics that discreetly subvert penetration during sexual intercourse Turkey’s “politics of the intimate” (Acar & between a man and a woman. Mirroring the Altunok, 2013) that oppresses women by heterosexism of the Turkish discourse of defining them in terms of “reproductive virginity, the participant mothers’ citizenship” (Unal & Cindoglu, 2013). If heteronormative understanding of virginity the discourse of virginity in Turkey does not account for other sexualities, represents an either/or binary— sexual practices outside of heterosexual virginal/pure or non-virgin/sullied—then intercourse, definitions of virginity not tied participant mothers reveal different to the hymen or gender, or even attitudes about virginity that, like virginal unanticipated but common ways to rupture facades, need not be either repressive or the hymen outside of sexual activity. More promiscuous. Berrin, the retired journalist important, the Turkish discourse of with a teenage daughter, exemplified these virginity reflects an oppressively shifting tactical subjectivities. Like the heteronormative worldview that is as other participant mothers, Berrin described homophobic as it is sexist. Accordingly, the navigating contradictory social locations as progressive change in the matter of Turkish a well-educated secular Muslim career sexual citizenship reported by the woman who said she wants the best for her participant mothers does not extend to child living in a conservative national individuals who are not heterosexual or political climate. As a modern woman, Berrin cisgender. argued that women "should be free to have Beşpınar (2010) documented sex" before marriage, and in the modern shifting employment tactics and strategies mother mode, she said that she wants her differing by class among Turkish women as daughter to "have choices" about “clandestine acts used to gain premarital sex. But, in the caring mother maneuverability” (p. 529). Beşpınar, mode, Berrin hoped her daughter tempers however, argued that such “‘tactics’ her choices by “making good decisions” to emerging from limited possibilities...are far avoid being ostracized by good society. from creating new gender-egalitarian rules or empowering women collectively” (pp. Journal of Research on Women and Gender 38

530-531). Ours and hers are different to dream and prepare us for lives she could studies, but we take Beşpınar’s point not imagine.” (p. 157). Following Collins seriously, that working around the system and Villenas, we see the pedagogical does not substantially inconvenience the parenting practices of the participant system and even can be interpreted to mothers as forms of resistance that validate it. Ozyegin (2009, p. 120) says supplant the dominant discourse of much the same thing, that transgressing virginity. Although not enough on their social boundaries by deploying virginal own to transform oppressive gender and facades “ultimately reinforces the valuation sexual norms, the persistence of people of virginity.” Furthermore, we note, such as the participant mothers can become individual women coming up with anchoring points from which to organize individual solutions does lay responsibility social change and create a more liberating for change on disempowered individuals discourse about sexuality in Turkey. In this and minimizes the possibility of organized sense, then, the participant mothers might political and social action that enlists be imagined as building bridges out of third women to work together to intervene space shadows into a quiet across their differences of race, ethnicity, transformation. religion, sexuality, generation, education, class, marital status, etc., which is Address correspondence to: Sandoval’s (1991, 2000) point. However, Aslı Aygüneş, Doctoral Candidate we plead a more optimistic view of Sabanci University “clandestine acts used to gain Email: [email protected] maneuverability”: Women who serve their own purposes by appearing to follow the rules as they get around such rules are enacting change. This is Pérez’s (1999, p. 33) “doubling,” a “performative act” of “subtle interventions.” She writes, “Where women are conceptualized as merely a backdrop to men’s social and political activities, they are in fact intervening interstitially” (p. 7). One also might argue that positive change depends on many individuals’ acts of resistance, such as the participant mothers who support sexual freedom for their children, particularly their daughters. We suggest that the participant mothers are describing strategic familial pedagogies. Villenas (2006, p. 157) writes, “So look closely because somewhere in the dark shadows of a women’s sufrimientos [suffering] we might find, as Collins (1999) emphasizes, a mother’s immense capacity Journal of Research on Women and Gender 39

5/30/world/europe/turkish- References premier-calls-for-more-abortion- Acar, F., & Altunok, G. (2013). The restrictions.html. “politics of intimate” at the Ayotte, B. L. (2000). State-control of intersection of neo-liberalism and female virginity in Turkey: The role neo-conservatism in contemporary of physicians. Human Rights Issues, Turkey. Women’s Studies International 23(1), 89-91. Forum, 41, 14-23. Bañuelos, L. E. (2006). “Here they go again Agence France-Presse in Istanbul (2014, with the race stuff”: Chicana Nov. 24). Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: negotiations of the graduate “Women not equal to men.” The experience. In D. D. Bernal, C. A. Guardian. Available at: Elenas, F. E. Godinez, & S. Villenas https://www.theguardian.com/wo (Eds.), Chicana/Latina education in rld/2014/nov/24/turkeys- everyday life: Feminista perspectives on president-recep-tayyip-erdogan- pedagogy and epistemology (pp. 95-112). women-not-equal-men. Albany: State University of New Ahmadi, A. (2012, June 1). Turkey PM York Press. Erdogan sparks row over abortion. Bayat, A. (2010). Life as politics: How ordinary BBC News. Available at: people change the Middle East. https://www.bbc.com/news/worl Amsterdam University Press. d-europe-18297760. Bekker, M. H. J., Rademakers, J., Alemdaroğlu, A. (2015). Escaping Mouthaan, I., De Neef, M., femininity, claiming respectability: Huisman, W. M., Van Zandvoort, Culture, class, and young women in H., & Emans, A. (1996). Turkey. Women's Studies International Reconstructing hymens or Forum, 53, 53-62. constructing sexual inequality? Anzaldúa, G. (1987/2012). Borderlands/La Service provision to Islamic young frontera: The new mestiza. San women coping with the demand to Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. be a virgin. Journal of Community & Arat, Z. F. (1994). Turkish women and the Applied Social Psychology, 6, 329-334. republican reconstruction of Beşpınar, F. U. (2010). Questioning agency tradition. In F. M. Gokcek & S. and empowerment: Women’s work- Balaghi (Eds.), Reconstructing gender in related strategies and social class in the Middle East (pp. 57-78). New urban Turkey. Women’s Studies York: Columbia University Press. International Forum, 33, 523-532. Arat, Z. F. (2000). Educating the daughters Bhabha, H. (1990). The third space. In J. of the Republic. In Z. F. Arat (Ed.), Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: Deconstructing images of Turkish woman Community, culture, difference (pp. 207- (pp. 1-36). New York: St. Martin’s 221). London: Lawrence & Press. Wishart. Arsu, S. (2012, May 29). Premier in Turkey Bruton, F. B. (2016, June 8). Turkey’s seeks limits on abortions. The New President Erdogan calls women York Times. Available at: “half persons.” NBC News. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/0 Available at: Journal of Research on Women and Gender 40

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ responses to ongoing vigilance over women’s world/turkey-s-president-erdogan- bodies. Unpublished manuscript, calls-women-who-work-half- Department of Cultural Studies, persons-n586421. Sabanci University, Istanbul, Cetingulec, T. (2015, Aug. 13). Turkey's Turkey. baby boom sends many children English, L. M. (2005). Third-space into state care. Al Monitor: The Pulse practitioners: Women educating for of the Middle East. Available justice in the global south. Adult at: http://www.al- Education Quarterly, 55(2), 85-100. monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015 Ergun, M. A. (2007). Social determinants of /08/turkey-foster-care-children- attitudes towards women's erdogans call-to-have-three- premarital sexuality among female kid.html#. Turkish university Cindoglu, D. (1997). Virginity tests and students. Sexuality and Culture, 11(3), artificial virginity. Women's Studies 1-10. International Forum, 20, 253–261. Essizoğlu, A., Yasan, A., Yildirim, E. A., Cindoglu, D., & Unal, D. (2017). Gender Gurgen, F., & Ozkan, M. (2011). and sexuality in the authoritarian Double standard for traditional discursive strategies of “New value of virginity and premarital Turkey.” European Journal of Women’s sexuality in Turkey: A university Studies, 24(1), 39-54. students case. Women & Health, Collins, P. H. (1999). Fighting words: Black 51(2), 136–50. women and the search for social justice. Gelbal, S., Duyan, V., & Ozturk, A. B. Minneapolis: University of (2008). Gender differences in sexual Minnesota Press. information sources, and sexual Dearden, L. (2014, July 30). “Women attitudes and behaviors of university should not laugh in public,” says students in Turkey. Social Behavior Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister in and Personality, 36(197), 1035–1052. morality speech.” Independent. Gole, N. (1996). The forbidden modern: Available at: Civilization and veiling. Ann Arbor: https://www.independent.co.uk/n University of Michigan Press. ews/world/europe/women- Golombisky, K. (2015). Renewing the should-not-laugh-in-public-says- commitments of feminist public turkeys-deputy-prime-minister-in- relations theory from velvet ghetto morality-speech-9635526.html. to social justice. Journal of Public Demirci, T., & Somel, S. (2008). Women’s Relations Research, 27(5), 389-415. bodies, demography, and public Jelen, B. (2011). Educated, independent, health: Abortion policy and and covered: The professional perspective in the Ottoman Empire aspirations and experiences of of the late nineteenth century. university-educated hijabi in Journal of the History of Sexuality, 17(3), contemporary Turkey. Women’s 377-420. Studies International Forum, 34, 308- Ellialti, T. (2008). The stomachache of Turkish 319. women: Virginity, premarital sex, and Journal of Research on Women and Gender 41

Kandiyoti, D. (1987). Emancipated but Journal of Women’s Studies, 16(2), 103– unliberated? Reflections on the 123. Turkish case. Feminist Studies, 13(2), Ozyegin, G. (2015). New desires, new selves: 317–338. Sex, love, and piety among Turkish youth. Kandiyoti, D. (1988). Bargaining with New York: NYU Press. patriarchy. Gender and Society, 2(3), Ozkaleli, U. (2018). Intersectionality in 274-290. gender mainstreaming-equity Kavas, S., & Gündüz-Hoşgör, A. (2013). organizing in Turkey. Journal of The parenting practice of single Women, Politics, and Policy, 39(2), 127- mothers in Turkey: Challenges and 150. strategies. Women’s Studies Parla, A. (2001). The “honor” of the state: International Forum, 40, 56-67. Virginity examinations in Turkey. Khan, S. (1998). Muslim women: Feminist Studies, 27(1), 65-88. Negotiation in the third space. Signs, Pérez, E. (1999). The decolonial imaginary: 23(2), 463-494. Writing Chicanas into history. Licona, A. C. (2005). (B)orderlands’ Bloomington: Indiana University rhetorics and representations: The Press. transformative potential of feminist Sakalli-Ugurlu, N. & Glick, P. (2003). third-space scholarship and zines. Ambivalent sexism and attitudes NWSA Journal, 17(2), 104-129. toward women who engage in Millar, T. M. (2008). Towards a premarital sex in Turkey. The Journal performance model of sex. In J. of Sex Research, 40(3), 296-302. Friedman & J. Valenti (Eds.), Yes Sandoval, C. (1991). U.S. third world means yes: Visions of female sexual power feminism: The theory and method and a world without (pp. 29-42). of oppositional consciousness in the New York: Seal Press. postmodern world. Genders, 10, 1- Müftüler-Baç, M. (1999). Turkish women’s 24. predicament. Women’s Studies Sandoval, C. (2000). Methodology of the International Forum, 22, 303-315. oppressed. Minneapolis: University of Müftüler-Baç, M. (2012). Gender equality in Minnesota Press. Turkey. Brussels: European Shah, R., & Golombisky, K. (2017). Parliament Policy Department C: Negotiating the third space in Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Chitral Pakistan: Using education to Affairs. advocate women’s rights. Journal of Onar, N. F., & Müftüler-Baç, M. (2011). Research on Women and Gender, 8, 5- The adultery and headscarf debates 20. in Turkey: Fusing “EU-niversal” Smith, L. (2018, Feb. 27). Turkey’s and “alternative” modernities? Erdogan says country should make Women’s Studies International Forum, adultery illegal and listening to EU 34, 378-389. on matter was a “mistake.” Ozyegin, G. (2009). Virginal facades: Independent. Available at: Sexual freedom and guilt among https://www.independent.co.uk/n young Turkish women. European ews/world/middle-east/turkey- adultery-cheating-crime-president- Journal of Research on Women and Gender 42

recep-erdogan-eu-infidelity-law- York Times. Available at: a8230281.html. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/1 Sümer, S., & Eslen-Ziya, H. (2017). New 2/23/world/europe/erdogan- waves for old rights? Women’s turkey-president-says- mobilization and bodily rights in contraception-supporters- Turkey and Norway. European traitors.html. Journal of Women’s Studies, 24(1), 23- Zubair, S., & Zubair, M. (2017). Situating 38. Islamic feminism(s): Lived religion, Tekeli, S. (1995). Introduction: Women in negotiation of identity, and Turkey in the 1980s. In S. Tekeli assertion of third space agency by (Ed.), Women in modern Turkish society: Muslim women in Pakistan. Women’s A reader (pp. 1-23). London: Zed Studies International Forum, 63, 17-26. Books. Tugrul, C., & Kabakci, E. (1997). Vaginismus and its correlates. Sexual and Marital Therapy, 12(1), 23-34. Unal, D., & Cindoglu, D. (2013). Reproductive citizenship in Turkey: Abortion chronicles. Women’s Studies International Forum, 38, 21-31. Villenas, S. A. (2006). Pedagogical moments in the borderland: Latina mothers teaching and learning. In D. D. Bernal, C. A. Elenas, F. E. Godinez, & S. Villenas (Eds.), Chicana/Latina education in everyday life: Feminista perspectives on pedagogy and epistemology (pp. 147-159). Albany: State University of New York Press. Yalcin, I., Aricioglu, A., & Malkoc, A. (2012). Premarital sex, social support, submissive behaviors, and loneliness among Turkish university students. International Journal of Advanced Counselling, 34, 259-267. Yasan, A., & Akdeniz, N. (2009). Treatment of lifelong vaginismus in traditional Islamic couples: A prospective study. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 6(4), 1054-1061. Yeginsu, C. (2014, Dec. 22). Turkey’s president accuses advocates of birth control of being traitors. The New