Sebahat Tuncel (born 5 July 1975) is a Kurdish politician, women’s rights advocate, former nurse and member of Parliament in Turkey. [1]
She was born in Malatya and studied Cartography and Land Surveying in Mersin University and began her political career through the Women’s Branch of the Party of People’s Democracy (HADEP) in 1998. She is currently Vice Co-chairperson and Istanbul Deputy of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which she helped to found. She has also worked with international organizations including UNDP and Amnesty International.[2] She went on trial for membership of PKK in 2006, accused of making frequent trips to PKK camps in northern Iraq, and was subsequently imprisoned. She ran for the parliamentary elections from prison and after winning a seat in Istanbul with 93,000 votes,[3] was released from custody in July 2007.[4] She is the youngest woman to serve in the Turkish parliament and the first person in Turkish history to be elected to parliament from prison.