Paper short abstract:

The paper will discuss intimate relationships from the point of view of women who have experienced violence and who stay in women’s shelters, that is from the “dark side”, and will try to understand current ideas about marriage and intimacy in Turkey and the impact of feminism, if it exists.

Paper long abstract:

Over the past five years, the discussions on domestic violence in Turkey have attained an unforeseen visibility and lead to a widespread discussion in the public sphere about the nature of marriage. It came nearly as a shock that the rates of violence against women in the family were so high, even though the feminists were arguing for it for over two decades. Consequently, the (republican) promise that marriage was the place of harmony and love was largely challenged. In this process, the role of feminist movement was undeniable in putting questions about violence and marriage on the agenda, and arguing for the promotion of women's rights, which can be seen as an instance of the spread of globalized "feminist" framework for intimate relations.

Subsequently, in this paper, I would like to focus on the question of how marriage / intimate relations are experienced by the women who are the actual "subjects" of these discussions about violence and marriage. For this purpose, I will draw on my fieldwork in three women's shelters in Turkey, and try to demonstrate their hopes, dreams and lived experiences with regards to marriage and family. Indeed, as the places that offer assistance to women who had the problem of violence during their marriages, the shelters provide us with an understanding of marriage from the point of view of its "dark sides", while also letting us to think about the globalized frameworks with regards to intimate relations (in this case, through the prism of feminism).