Deniz Kandiyoti

Deniz Kandiyoti is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is the author of Concubines, Sisters and Citizens: Identities and Social Transformation (1997) the editor of Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey (2002), Gendering the Middle East (1996), Women, Islam and the State (1991) Deniz is the editor of the journal Central Asian Survey.

A tangled web: the politics of gender in Turkey

Although the women’s movement in Turkey has scored major victories in the realm of legal reforms, there is a widening gap between rights in law and realities on the ground. How secure are these gains?

By Deniz Kandiyoti

/ 5 Jan 2011

Not the Church, Not the State? Gender equality in the crossfire

The challenge to platforms for gender equality comes not just from actors with fundamentalist agendas, but from a conjuncture where women’s rights have been opportunistically instrumentalized to serve geopolitical goals, and neo-liberal policies have severed social justice from gender equality con

By Deniz Kandiyoti

/ 23 Jul 2010

Negotiating with the Taliban: the view from below

While the only official woman delegate in the Afghan mission to the London Conference pleaded that women’s rights must not be sacrificed on the altar of security concerns, women’s rights activists who had also travelled to London brought their own message

By Deniz Kandiyoti

/ 29 Jan 2010

Gender in Afghanistan: pragmatic activism

War and mismanagement have produced a breakdown of trust, decency and reciprocity in Afghan society. Gender activism needs to be understood in that context, and not be tempted by crude cultural determinism.

By Deniz Kandiyoti

/ 2 Nov 2009

Andijan: prelude to a massacre

In 2002, the bazaar in Andijan, Uzbekistan, witnessed an unusual scene. The police approached a trader selling coats and demanded to see his papers. When it became clear that they

By Deniz Kandiyoti

/ 13 May 2009

Where is Islam going?: responses to Werner Schiffauer

Deniz Kandiyoti: We have just listened to a wonderfully nuanced, multi-layered account of a close inspection of a particular Islamic community in Germany. What I heard Werner Schiffauer say is

By Deniz Kandiyoti

/ 15 Oct 2002