In Istanbul’s Beşiktaş bazaar, amid pyramids of strawberries and olives, noisy sellers and passers-by looking for a good deal, an activist shouts: “Down with Erdogan!” – reports La Libre Belgique newspaper, quoted by Rador.

“Defend your rights at the polling stations in the second round on May 28!” insists Rozhda Aksoy, a slender figure surrounded by a group of other feminist activists holding hands.

“Reis (chief, in Turkish – note) will win!” – replied a supporter of the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won the first round of presidential elections on May 14.

The exchange of remarks is sharp. He will be friendlier to women with scarves tied around their necks, even applauding.

With the second round approaching, the Turkish opposition is more than ever courting the female electorate, especially housewives, who are traditionally won by the head of state.

According to the data, housewives in the 2018 presidential election voted for the one under whose rule restrictions on wearing headscarves in public service and university were abolished, up to 60%.

But with their wallets full of devalued currency notes, they are all aware of the skyrocketing onion prices and the burden of inflation.

“We have to go to meet them to remind them that even if (Erdogan and his Islamic conservative AKP party) have ruled this country for more than 20 years, even if they have all the tools of propaganda, including the media, they did not win,” Royda explains. Aksoy AFP between stalls selling second-hand clothes and artichoke hearts floating in blue bowls.

Opposition candidate and leader of the Social Democratic and Secular CHP Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in his campaign videos of him sitting in the kitchen, won only 44.9% of voters in the first round, while Çiğdem Ener, a 50-year-old woman with a big bun one of them. Her heart chose a third husband, the ultra-nationalist Sinan Ogan.

“Turkey is secular, it has given women the right to vote and the right to vote” since the 1930s, she recalls. “And look at the pitiful level Erdogan has dragged us to by bringing his friends from the radical Islamist group Huda Par to parliament,” she fumes, looking at the price of cheese.

However, she will vote for Kilicdaroglu on Sunday.

Tijen Alpanli, red hair and glasses, will do the same, but out of conviction. “Women are killed, almost none of the criminals are punished,” says the six-year-old, who also fears the presence of Islamists in Erdogan’s coalition.

Instead, 50-year-old Razie Kuskaya and her daughter will support “Tayip to the last drop of (their) blood.” “We may not be able to buy everything we want, but that’s okay,” says this Sharia supporter.

From Van (east) to Eskişehir (center), Kılıçdaroğlu activists are trying to convince voters who are deeply polarized.

“We realize that there are masses that we cannot reach, especially housewives,” CHP Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu admitted last week.

Instead, the AKP sent women to knock on the doors of houses for two decades.

The ambitious Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before becoming mayor of Istanbul in 1994, made it a secret weapon and demonstration of the political Islam he espouses despite the reluctance of his party at the time (Refa).

Emine Erdoğan, his wife, was one of the leaders of this local activism.

The idea of ​​the future prime minister and head of state is that “women will be able to enter women’s homes, discuss and persuade, because between the main activist of the AKP and the housewives there is a commonality of gender, values, class,” explains Prunel Aimé, doctor of political Sciences, which cooperates with CERI-Sciences Po Paris.

The number of AKP members today exceeds five million.

Their courtesy visits at births, marriages or deaths are part of the relational and emotional work that allows, in addition to building loyalty, to explore areas and gather data, Ms Aimé continues.

Working housewives are also the main beneficiaries of the craft classes, family and municipal welfare centers that make AKP popular at the local level, she notes.

But the AKP lost about 20 seats during the May 14 parliamentary elections. “So, we can hope,” Rozhda Aksoy wants to believe.