The Female Citizen as a Precursor to Political Revolution in the Middle East – A Comparative Study of Turkey and Iran

Abstract

Gender politics has existed at the periphery of academic analysis regarding social and political movements prior to dramatic political upheaval or revolution. In contrast to existing research, this study seeks to contend that there is an underlying female narrative to political revolution. To this end, it proposes a constructivist analysis that relies on discourse analysis to understand political and social movements. Through a comparative study of the gendered politics within Turkey and Iran, Four main premises are considered — the central assumptions regarding the 'Muslim woman'; the woman's personification of nationalism within domestic politics; the role of the woman in the public sphere; and the role of the woman in the private sphere. These discussions will establish the woman as a pre-cursor for revolution and an essential arbiter that determines the trajectory of political upheavals in Middle Eastern nations.