The Politics of Education in Turkey

The Politics of Education in Turkey: Islam, Neoliberalism and Gender, by Zuhre Emanet. London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2023, 199pp. ISBN: 978-0755636693.

Reviewed by: Anis Ahmad, Riphah International University, Pakistan                

In this interesting book, Zuhre Emanet shares her observations on the state primary schools, Zinnur and Talip, in the Bahcelik district of Istanbul during the early 2010s. The main aim of her research is the exploration of the essential changes introduced in early education under the AKP government. As a feminist, the author is also concerned about gender equality and the revival of wearing the scarf amongst girls under the AKP-Gülen alliance, that also introduced, in the school curriculum, the study of some aspects of Ottoman heritage and the role of religion in building Turkish nationhood. This ideological Turkish-Islamic synthesis is dubbed by the author as Islamization. The author also explores such changes as “Islamization imposed through political power.”