The shaven citizen, the bearded resistance: Kemalist discipline and the hidden transcript of the periphery
This article explores how facial hair became a politically charged battleground in early Republican Turkey, where the clean-shaven face emerged as a visual marker of disciplined, secular citizenship. Rather than treating beards and mustaches as minor cultural habits or a mere reflection of the well-...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Politics, religion & ideology
Year: 2025, Volume: 26, Issue: 4, Pages: 563-581 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article explores how facial hair became a politically charged battleground in early Republican Turkey, where the clean-shaven face emerged as a visual marker of disciplined, secular citizenship. Rather than treating beards and mustaches as minor cultural habits or a mere reflection of the well-established center–periphery divide, the study argues that bodily aesthetics functioned as a crucial interface where state power and religious identity visibly confronted each other. By examining legal-administrative records, press discussions, memoirs, and local narratives, the article shows how bodily norms were produced, monitored, and tactically negotiated in everyday life. Drawing on a unified analytical framework informed by biopolitics, habitus, and everyday resistance, the analysis reveals a dual process: modernizing reforms rewarded conformity in urban public spheres while eroding the symbolic and cultural capital of rural religious elites. et these actors did not simply comply or openly rebel; they employed subtle tactics such as controlled beard growth, hybrid appearance styles, and coded gestures to sustain authority and belonging. The article contributes to scholarship on Kemalist modernization by shifting the analytical focus from institutional reforms and ideological polarization to the micro-political negotiations enacted on the male body. Facial hair, therefore, offers a novel lens to understand how citizenship, secularism, and religious legitimacy were contested and reshaped through mundane, embodied practices. |
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| ISSN: | 2156-7697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Politics, religion & ideology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/21567689.2025.2604579 |
