Political Change and Women in Bosnia-Hezegovina and Turkey

This is an Archive of a Past Event
Yeşim Arat (2014-15 FSI-SHC International Visiting Scholar)
Zilka Spahić-Šiljak (CREEES Visiting Scholar)
Yeşim Arat is a 2014 International Visitor at the Stanford Humanities Center, and a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey. She is the author of The Patriarchal Paradox: Women Politicians in Turkey (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1989), Rethinking Islam and Liberal Democracy: Islamist Women in Turkish Politics (SUNY Press, 2005), Violence Against Women in Turkey (with Ayse Gul Altinay-Punto, 2009-Turkish version, 2008 Pen Duygu Asena Award) and numerous articles on women as well as Turkish politics. Arat was the Provost of her university between 2008-2012 and is a member of the Science Academy, Turkey. She is currently working on a book on post 1980 politics of Turkey.
Zilka Spahić-Šiljak is a 2014 Visiting Scholar at the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and research scholar and public intellectual addressing issues involving human rights, politics, religion, education and peace-building. She has worked for the past two decades as human rights activist in non-governental organizations on the promotion of women’s human rights, multireligious dialogue and reconciliation. From 2012-2014 she conducted post-doctoral research at the Women’s Studies in Religion Program of Harvard University with particular interest in gender and peacebuilding. Her current research at Stanford University focuses on the intersection of leadership, gender and peacebuilding. Some of her recent publications include Shining Humanity – Life Stories of Women Peacebuilders in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), Contesting Female, Feminist and Muslim Identities –Post-socialist Contexts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo (CIPS, University of Sarajevo, 2012), and Women, Religion and Politics (Sarajevo, 2010).