Paper short abstract:

Based on fieldwork, this paper aims to examine how Turkish women from the urban lower class in Istanbul experience conventional norms of protection by family and kin, and how they have reconfigured their sense of belonging in a time of increasing economic instability.

Paper long abstract:

Among the urban poor in Turkey, women are thought to be protected by their husbands and other (especially male) kin. Protecting women has material, emotional, and sexual implications. Material protection is seen as a means of preventing women from reliance on non-kin males, which would be a threat to their individual and family honor. However, as the urban poor have become more economically vulnerable under neo-liberalist economic policies, men now have difficulty providing material support for their wives and other female kin.

The aim of this paper is to examine how women from the urban lower class experience conventional norms of family/kin protection, and thus reconfigure their sense of belonging at a time when receiving full-fledged protection has become difficult. The study is based on fieldwork that I conducted in a low-income district in Istanbul.

For women in the district, the control of sexuality is generally seen as acceptable when it is coupled with material support, although subtle differences in perspectives on the control of sexuality are evident. The paper will suggest that a greater value is attached to the emotional factor of protection when women reconfigure their relationships with their families or kin, and is also connected to a sense of belonging.