Between the State and The Community: The Case of Iranian Political Asylum Seeker Women in Turkey

This paper aims to analyse everyday relations of Iranian women who migrated to Turkey with the state, the transformation of their perceptions of identity in relation to that and ways of resistance against social exclusion with a feminist perspective. The research was conducted between 2011 and 2013 in Ankara, Eskişehir and Çankırı through participatory observation and case study methods. All individuals who were interviewed within the scope of case study are women with Persian, Lur and Kurdish ethnic backgrounds who are opponents of the Iranian regime and who were living in Turkey temporarily during the period in question. In addition to legal restrictions that shape their everyday life in Turkey, cultural, political, economic and gender based factors effect women asylum seeker's perceptions of identity and society. The temporary status of women asylum seekers in Turkey, that they are not granted working permit or the right to choose the city they want to live combined with not being able to speak Turkish cause isolation and social exclusion. Within this context Iranian women asylum seekers' relation with the state (especially with the police and the municipalities) is troubled and restrict their living environment to the political communities within the Diaspora. Keywords: Political Migration, Asylum Seekers, Women and the Nation State, Everyday Resistance