Bir Kadının Penceresinden [Through a Woman’s Window] by Oktay Rifat: A Novel about Female Participation in Turkey’s Political Life in the 1970s

In this article, Oktay Rifat’s novel Bir Kadının Penceresinden (1976) is read in the context of women’s involvement in Turkish political life during the 1970s, and analysed using the tools of feminist narratology to outline the path Turkish women took in order to gain full political rights. An analysis of the novel, which depicts the female protagonist’s potential participation in political life, reveals how, despite the fact that she was surrounded by revolutionaries, she remained uninterested in – and a passive observer of – political issues. This theme, seemingly digressive and reduced to a mere background concern, is viewed as symptomatic of the lack of opportunities for women to fully participate in Turkish political life at that time.