Building Justice from Below. Women’s Legal Activism in Türkiye and the Kurdish Women's Struggle for Self-Determination: From Women’s Silencing to Women's Courts.

This thesis explores how gender-based inequalities are institutionalized within modern legal systems and interrogates these structures through the lens of feminist legal theory. Grounded in restorative and transformative justice approaches, the study critically analyzes how patriarchal norms shape legal interpretations, particularly within the context of Turkey. Drawing on collective justice practices developed by global women’s movements, it examines the Kurdish Women’s Movement’s struggle and institutionalization efforts in Turkey and the Middle East as a concrete manifestation of an alternative legal imagination. Considering these experiences, women’s courts, rooted in the principles of community-based justice, are discussed not merely as judicial practices, but also as ethical, political, and epistemic forms of resistance. Ultimately, the thesis seeks to highlight the transformative potential of feminist conceptions of justice to challenge and reshape the gendered foundations of state law.