The Discursive Construction of Epistemic Injustice Against the EU’s Gender Equality Policies: The Case of ETCEP

This study explores how epistemic injustice is represented in the discourse against gender equality policies in education in Türkiye, supported by the European Union. For this purpose, it firstly addresses the roots of the perception of epistemic superiority of the West, the historical background of EU-Türkiye relations and the main actors and strategies of anti-genderism, which become prominent in the discourses against Promoting Gender Equality in Education Project (ETCEP). Thereafter the study focuses on ETCEP as a case study, examining its announcement and implementation and its public criticisms. In these objections ETCEP is framed as a source of epistemic injustice. Policies envisaged by ETCEP are evaluated as cultural invasion tools that disrupt ‘our’ value system by underscoring the colonial past of the West. However, criticisms are raised after the project is completed, are voiced together with objections to policies to prevent violence against women that are not directly relevant to educational policies. These arguments present an idealized narrative of the past and a patriarchal order, which have been targeted in the first place for being root causes of substantial social injustices, as remedies. The current socio-political context lacks an environment of democratic interaction required to eliminate epistemic injustices. This puts the arguments in question in an instrumental position in legitimizing new epistemic injustices.