Since the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights and activism have been under siege. Notable examples include the consecutive bans of the Istanbul Pride marches since 2016, as well as the governor of Ankara’s ban on any LGBTI-themed events in the capital. Against this political background and considering the scant scholarly attention given to the issues so far, LGBTI Rights in Turkey is a welcome contribution to the literature on LGBTI rights and politics outside the Western world.

The book’s primary purpose is to “explore the various facets of LGBTI rights in Turkey, shedding light not only on rights abuses but also on how actors are “working to improve conditions for sexual minorities” (p. 6). To do so, it presents a history of human rights abuses within Turkey, provides an overview of the current legal status of LGBTI people, and documents and discusses a variety of strategies pursued by those actors fighting for LGBTI equality. Additionally, Fait Muedini is interested in the “relationship between the use of religion and [LGBTI] human rights” (p. 6), particularly in how different actors use religion in opposition to LGBTI equality and how LGBTI activists employ religious-based arguments.

The role of religion serves as a key point of focus and a scope condition of the research. This is in part because of the way in which Muedini structures the argument. Chapter 1, for example, introduces the reader to the topic by drawing attention to the links between Islam and homosexuality in Turkey, but with reference to (as well as embedding the argument within) the wider “Muslim World.” After making empirical observations of homophobia within Muslim communities, the wider Muslim world, and Turkey, Muedini draws our attention to what the conversations within Islam and Islamic jurisprudence have to say on homosexuality. Based on the assumption that it is these debates within Islam that drive anti-LGBT attitudes, Muedini then shifts attention to how religion can be used to create social change. To set up this argument, he finishes this chapter with a discussion of how Islam has been reinterpreted to demonstrate an acceptance of LGBTI rights and how these reinterpretations could and should be used in activism in Turkey.

One of the greatest contributions made by LGBTI Rights in Turkey is the encyclopedic mapping of the current state of LGBT politics in Turkey. Chapter 2, for example, provides an extensive overview of the discrimination, inequalities, and violence experienced by LGBTI people in Turkey in different spheres of life. This overview touches on the use of homophobic language by political leaders, the types of violent crimes against the LGBTI community, discrimination in the field of employment, and media restrictions. Muedini must be applauded for the special attention this chapter gives to the experiences of LGBTI refugees in Turkey, as well as members of the trans* community, who remain one of the most vulnerable groups in the country (and remain underrepresented in most scholarship).

Muedini presents a detailed overview of the existing legal framework and activists’ strategies in Turkey, with special attention to the use of (digital) media and electoral strategies, as well as links between activists and different political actors. The author provides detailed profile descriptions of several LGBT politicians who have been elected in local and national elections. Here, the book’s most important analytical contribution is that it draws attention to the local level and how activists can find several entry points into politics to advocate for LGBTI rights. Although at the national level homophobia may be frequently used in statecraft processes, these tactics do not necessarily trickle down to the local levels of the state. Finally, the book also provides an overview of a wide array of other areas of work pursued by activists, including the provision of services and transnational networks, as well as different challenges activists might encounter.

Because of the wide range of topics it seeks to cover, however, LGBTI Rights in Turkey becomes very descriptive, losing much of its analytical power. This is not helped by Muedini’s failure to embed his analysis within the ever-growing literature on LGBTI activism and politics in a variety of fields, including political science and sociology. For example, in chapter 4, in which Muedini discusses potential activist strategies, the rich sociological literature on identity politics (e.g. Mary Bernstein, “Celebration and Suppression: The Strategic Uses of Identity by the Lesbian and Gay Movement,” American Journal of Sociology 103[3], 1997) and on the relationships between LGBT movements and the state (The Lesbian and Gay Movement and the State: Comparative Insights into a Transformed Relationship, edited by Manon Tremblay and colleages, 2011) does not feature. Consequently, the chapter leads to an uncritical exposition of empirical examples of what activists in different parts of the world (with a predominant focus on the West) have done to promote LGBT equality. And although Muedini rightfully notes that some of these strategies are not always transferrable from one context to another, he does seem to take their analytical power for granted while not fully exploring the theoretical debates that surround these strategies.

The second shortcoming of the book relates to Muedini’s preoccupation with religion, the exploration of which he admits was a driving force behind his research (p. 21). He seems to have an undeniable desire to demonstrate how using religious arguments is an effective method for LGBTI activists to fight for social change (p. 216), but yet he does not have the empirical evidence to back up this claim. This raises serious questions about whether Muedini (unwittingly?) reproduces the essentializing idea that anti-LGBTI politics in Turkey (and in the wider Muslim world) are the direct product of Islam. Rather than interrogating how religion is used politically, Muedini’s approach at times reads as an analysis of Turkey (but, as the book’s subtitle suggests, also the Middle East) in which Islamic culture is reproduced as the West’s homophobic other. Although I assume that such a Western gaze was not the author’s intention, it nevertheless emerges, because Muedini unfortunately does not consider the existing critical literature on sexuality and the Middle East or on LGBT and sexuality studies more generally. For example, he seems to attribute the anti-LGBT politics of the AKP to the party’s Islamic nature and its particular interpretation of Islam (p. 34) while not considering the existing debates on political homophobia (Michael Bosia, “Strange Fruit: Homophobia, the State, and the Politics of LGBT Rights and Capabilities,” Journal of Human Rights, 13[3], 2014; Meredith Weiss and Michael Bosia, eds., Global Homophobia: States, Movements, and the Politics of Oppression, 2013); on homonationalism (Jasbit Puar, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times, 2007); homocolonialism (Momin Rahman, “Queer Rights and the Triangulation of Western Exceptionalism,” Journal of Human Rights, 13[3], 2014); or on threat perception (Phillip Ayoub, “With Arms Wide Shut: Threat Perception, Norm Reception, and Mobilized Resistance to LGBT Rights,” Journal of Human Rights, 13[3], 2014). Such an engagement would allow the author to explore how both religion and homophobia can be instrumentalized as part of wider political processes and thus avoid some of the essentializing tendencies of the book.

This lack of engagement with the relevant literatures brings me to the final shortcoming of the book: its use of language, which suggests a rather limited understanding of the complexities of sexualities and LGBT politics. Muedini uses LGBTI rights, same-sex rights, and sexual orientation rights seemingly interchangeably throughout the book. Doing so not only ignores the existing debates on the usefulness of the label “LGBTI” as an analytical tool (e.g., Jon Binnie and Christian Klesse,“Solidarities and Tensions: Feminism and Transnational LGBTQ Politics in Poland,” European Journal for Women’s Studies, 19[4], 2012), but these slippages further erase the differences between the different groups that the different letters of the acronym refer to, as well as remaining blind to the different processes of exclusion experienced by these groups. This is particularly unfortunate given that Muedini does spend considerable attention on the trans* community and their activism. By reducing LGBTI to same-sex rights, Muedini’s choice of words reinforces and reifies a lack of inclusiveness that remains all too present in some parts of the movement and even in scholarship, which remains preoccupied and dominated by gay men.

In sum, LGBTI Rights in Turkey draws attention to an understudied issue in comparative politics area and provides a good description of the current state of LGBTI rights, activism, and opposition in Turkey. Its descriptive nature and the breadth of the topics covered make the book an invaluable resource for scholars interested in LGBTI rights in Turkey. However, the book’s lack of engagement with the existing literature and its focus on description rather than analysis limit its intellectual contributions.