The construction of family, gender and population issues in mosque sermons in Turkey

This research investigates how the Directorate General of Religious Affairs in Turkey conveys the gender role models, which cultivate femininity and masculinity through the means of sermons at Friday prayers. It is crucial to inspect the construction of these role models as well as issues such as family, sexuality and modernity, population issues in congregations composed of men meeting every week. In this effort, through the means of questions such as "what types of issues are mentioned in the Friday prayers", "how sermons convey gender roles", "how sermons construct femininity and masculinity as supportive roles of family" as well as "how the pious in attendance comprehend the message in Friday sermons", the project is seeking to portray the types of gender institutions built by discourses. 

The methodology of this research follows discursive institutionalism in order to test the stages through which gender institutions are constructed. These are first, the written sermon appropriated by the religious authorities at the county level; second, how the message has been transmitted through the sermon at the mosque, and finally, how the attendants understand this message in order to show cognitive dissonance. In order to test how religious institutions are conceived through the means of discourses, this research uses dialogics and semantics.

The research procedes under four chapters: (1) An analysis of sermons available to the public through the websites of representatives of the Directorate General of Religious Affairs at county levels; (2) field research in 10 Turkish counties; (3) in-person interviews with the congregation right after the sermon; (4) interviews with priests. The project is highly original in scope, methodology and first of its kind. It combines quantitative and qualitative analyses. It is funded for a two year period by the KOCKAM - Koc Univeristy Center for Gender Studies.