Abstract

This chapter focuses on the activist platform Birbirimize sahip çıkıyoruz and demonstrates that solidarity is a process based on dissensus (Rancière, Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics. London & New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010), rather than consensus. This activist platform—this alliance—aimed to make public claims, to set out publicly disputes over who is entitled to rights, rather than reaching consensus on a minimum base with regard to their ideological, political and other differences. This is how one can perceive the signature of feminist and LBT organisations in petitions supporting the lift of the headscarf ban, while their signature also means that they still oppose religion and veiling practices. Similarly, religious activists would claim to support LBT activists against exposure to suffering, violence and discrimination while arguing that same-sex desires are illicit and should be suppressed. Even if this paradoxical support has its own limits, it is argued that these limits have to be understood in a historical, political and social context that hinders even further the support proffered by women who have agreed to become allies, while still keeping a distance between them.