Rapid Scoping Review 2025: Türkiye

Anti-feminist discourse has long been present among groups across the political spectrum in Türkiye. Erdoğan has explicitly stated that he is against gender equality, that abortion is murder, and that using contraception undermines the nation. This rhetoric influenced the official stance on reproductive rights, resulting in increasingly limited access to both contraception and preventive health measures such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, alongside repeated attempts to restrict or criminalise abortion. This focus on traditional family values led to abolishing the term ‘gender equality’ from official documents, and contributed to a permissive environment for violence clearly observed in the rising incidence of gender-based violence and impunity for the perpetrators. During the 2023 election, the AKP’s homophobic rhetoric intensified, labelling ‘LGBT’ as a threat to national security and family values, and describing homosexuality as ‘perverse’ and incompatible with Islam. This brief explores the context of rollback, the landscape of anti-rollback actors, counter-rollback strategies, and gaps and areas for future research and work.