Liberalism Unveiled: FEMEN- Muslim Women Debate and the Question of Freedom

In 2013, Ukraine-based feminist group FEMEN staged several protests around Europe in support of Amina Tyler, a Tunisian FEMEN activist receiving death threats for posting nude photographs of her online with social messages written on her body. Following these protests, a group of women who call themselves Muslim Women against FEMEN released a an open letter criticizing the discourse FEMEN used in these protests, which they found to be white colonialist and Islamophobic. In this paper, the author examines the discursive strategies put forth by the two sides of the debate, suggesting that undergirding both is a shared framework of liberalism. Exploring the shortcomings of liberalism as drawn on by both positions, the author attempts to rethink what “freedom” might mean for international feminist alliances across differences.

Peçesiz Liberalizm: FEMEN-Müslüman Kadınlar Tartışması ve Özgürlük Meselesi

2013 yılında Tunus’lu FEMEN aktivisti Amina Tyler sosyal medyada çıplak bedenine yazdığı sosyal mesajlar içeren fotoğraflarını paylaşması ile birlikte ölüm tehditleri almaya başladı. Buna karşılık olarak, Ukrayna çıkışlı feminist topluluk FEMEN, Avrupa’nın muhtelif yerlerinde eylemler düzenledi. Bu eylemlerin ardından kendilerine FEMEN Karşıtı Müslüman Kadınlar adını veren bir grup FEMEN’in kullandığı söylemleri eleştiren ve beyaz sömürgeci ve İslamofobik olarak adlandıran bir açık mektup yayımladı. Bu yazı, tartışmanın iki tarafını oluşturan söylemsel stratejileri inceleyerek, bunları temellendiren ortak çerçevenin liberalizm olduğunu ileri sürmektdir. Bu sayede iki cephenin de kendini dayandırmış olduğu liberalizm çerçevesinin kısıtlılıklarına değinerek, farklılıklar üzerinden inşa edilen uluslararası feminist ittifaklar için özgürlük kavramının ne anlamlara gelebileceği yeniden düşünmeye açılmaktadır.

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