Through differences commonalities: women's experiences of being Alevi

Abstract

This thesis is about women's experiences of being Alevi, with a focus on their everyday encounters with other Alevi and Sunni women. Based on a fieldwork in two different districts in Istanbul, with a specific focus on women's networks and visits (which also include places outside of these districts), this thesis, one the one hand, portrays how women experience the 'difference' between Alevis and Sunnis, and on the other hand, it looks at women's ritualized practices that are aimed at finding and emphasizing 'commonalities' among Alevis. In this way, it is argued that 'woman' as a symbol of group identity, which appears within the discourses of Alevilik as an identity movement since the late 1980s, falls short of accounting for women's experiences of being Alevi in their everyday encounters. But also it is argued that 'woman' as a symbol harkens to the accusations leveled at Alevis that take the form of gossip. Gossips about Alevis and the feeling of discontent that stems from them are seen as the shared experience of all Alevis and contribute to the imagination of a larger community of 'Alevis', an imagination that the identity movement also aims to establish. On the other hand, the gossips about Alevis gain a distinct meaning in the networks of women through the arguments over cleanliness and namus. The thesis concludes that 'finding and emphasizing commonalities' in practices among Alevis is a way of extending women's networks, which originally involve kin and 'villagers'; yet 'villager' is also a category that we should not take for granted.