The Football and Society Podcast

The wilting of the Purple Violets: How female football fans have become marginalised in Turkey

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Episode notes

In Turkish society today, women have become more and more invisible under the rule of President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party, illustrated by the absence of female supporters in Turkish football stadiums. This has not always been the case, however, as a recent article in the Soccer and Society journal highlighted. Sezen Kayhan’s study focuses on a group of female supporters, the Purple Violets, who follow Orduspor, a team based in the city of Ordu on the Black Sea.

In the 1970s, the Purple Violets grew in numbers to such an extent that the club decided to reserve a special place in the stadium just for them, known as the ‘women’s bleacher’. Sezen notes that football was not only very popular but was the ‘pioneer social activity’ for women in the city of Ordu in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, however, the group has lost its enthusiasm and stopped going to games, due chiefly to the commercialization of football, the impact of political polarisation in Turkey on football fandom, and government policies strongly discouraging women’s presence in public spaces; the latter has manifested itself in sexist chants and attacks on female supporters. Furthermore, the existence of Orduspor is itself under threat, after the local pro-government municipality formed a new team and forced Orduspor out of its stadium, which has now been demolished.

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