Turkeys Feminist Magazine Goes Online

The first issue of "Feminist Approaches in Culture and Politics" (Kultur ve Siyasette Feminist Yaklasimlar) magazine aims to become a platform where all issues relevant to women can be discussed and where such a publication and debate could deteriorate the borders between academics and activism, according to the journal's publishing board member Derya Demirler.

The agenda of the magazine is issues affecting women as much as issues and situations that women get effected by directly that are not necessarily regionalized or localized.

The first issue of the magazine, for instance, contains articles on how the war in the Middle East is affecting women as well as writings on overall war policies in the region.

Women organizations in Afghanistan and the Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women are subject to one article alongside an interview-report covering US "security" policies after September 11 and the state of human rights.

Demirler explains that "instead of collecting the issues of women under several titles we gave priority to reflect the views of various women" - hence the name of the magazine itself which is about "approaches" of women rather than a woman's "approach".

Producers of the magazine recognize that different cultures shape today's women and that their identity is created, in Demirler's words, "in a rich and complex diversity".

"As women, we believe that rather than be an obstacle in front of us" she says, "We believe this diversity will help us see more clearly the discrimination policies that harbor sexism in their structure and expand the perspectives of our struggle".

Feminist women project

Feminist Approaches was from the very start envisioned as a feminist women's project. From determining on what goes into print to the first launch, women were active in every period of its preparation.

Its board of publishers consists of known feminist activists Fahriye Dincer, Ozlem Aslan and Zeynep Kutluata.

The magazine itself has an arbitratorship with all of its content being shaped through discussions between its board of publishers and advisory board.

The magazine gives priority to the principle of positive discrimination for women and products by women.

Other than articles, Feminist Approaches content includes interviews, poems and short stories that protect it against being entrapped in a dry, academic jargon, while women represent themselves in different ways.

The policy of the magazine, says Demirler, is "an anti-militarist and democratic path that takes into account the diversity of cultures and identities". (EO/EK/II

* Click to access the Turkish-language Kultur ve Siyasette Feminist Yaklasimlar magazine. Published every four months the magazine is available on a subscription basis. Any single issue is 4 YTL while an annual subscription is only 10 YTL. (EO/II/YE)