The Birth of Ottoman Penal Biopolitics: Motherhood, Pregnancy and Child-Protection in the Late Ottoman Penal System (1850-1918)

Gizem Sivri (Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies) will give a talk titled The Birth of Ottoman Penal Biopolitics: Motherhood, Pregnancy and Child-Protection in the Late Ottoman Penal System (1850-1918).

This article deals with the strategies employed by late Ottoman criminal justice to formulate policies aimed at regulating the reproductive activities and childbearing of women prisoners. The late Ottoman penal system exhibited a notable degree of leniency and tolerance towards pregnant, breastfeeding, and mother inmates, as evidenced by provisions within the penal codes and prison regulations spanning from 1850 to 1918. Concurrently, there was a concerted effort to prevent infant mortality and improve the living conditions of mothers through the introduction of special laws and regulations. This led to the development of original and idiosyncratic approaches for managing pregnant, breastfeeding women, and mothers in prisons. This paper sheds light on the emergence of biopolitical penal apparatuses within the late Ottoman criminal justice system.