Forgiveness In Intimate Partner Violence: Love,Self-Making And Justice

This thesis examines the experiences of women and LGBTQ+ individuals in Turkeywho have faced intimate partner violence (IPV) in non-marital and financially independentrelationships. In a context where IPV is widespread yet often studiedwithin marriage, it highlights narratives that remain outside institutional recognition.Participants describe violence as deeply entangled with love and intimacy,where the boundaries between forgiveness and endurance are often blurred. Forgivenessappears less as a moral resolution than as an ambivalent practice shapedby cultural scripts and the pressures of staying. The analysis traces how survivorsnegotiate the emotional grammar of love: how pain is romanticized, how fantasiesof “the one” persist, and how love becomes both labor and social investment. Itfurther shows how survivors navigate stigma, shame, and contradictory expectations,reshaping their own subjectivities in the process. The role of communityand instutional responsibility emerges as central to how violence is endured andhow justice is imagined beyond formal institutions. By attending to the emotional,relational, and narrative dimensions of IPV, this study contributes to feminist debateson endurance, forgiveness, and justice. It shows how survivors live with harm,love despite it, and articulate selves that unsettle binary framings of weakness and empowerment.