Edibe Şahin (born 1960 in

Nazımiye Nazımiye (), formerly known as Kızıl Kilise (, ), is a municipality and seat of the Nazımiye District of Tunceli Province in Turkey. It had a population of 1,262 in 2021. It is populated by Zazas, Zaza Kurds of the Arel and Lolan (tribe), Lol ...

Tunceli Tunceli (, , ) is a municipality (belde) in Tunceli District and capital of Tunceli Province, Turkey. The city has a Zaza majority. It had a population of 35,161 in 2021. Name During Ottoman times, the settlement was called ''Kalan'' or ''Ma ...

, Turkey) was the mayor of the municipality of

(Mamekiye), the capital of

Tunceli Province Tunceli Province (), formerly Dersim Province (; ; ), is a province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Its central city is Tunceli. The province has a Kurdish majority. Moreover, it is the only province in Turkey with an Alevi majority. ...

Eastern Anatolia The Eastern Anatolia region () is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ. It is bordered by the Black Sea Region and Georgia in th ...

, for the

Democratic Society Party The Democratic Society Party (, DTP, Kurdish: ''Partiya Civaka Demokratîk'', PCD) was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social-democratic and had observer status in the Socialist International. It was c ...

(DTP). She is of

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

Alevi Alevism (; ; ) is a syncretic heterodox Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Islamic teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, who taught the teachings of the Twelve Imams, whilst incorporating some traditions from shamanism. Differing ...

origin.

Early life and education

She was born in Nazımiye in 1960 and attended high school in Tunceli. Later she graduated from the Vocational School for Girls in

Ağrı Ağrı (; ) is a city in eastern Turkey, near the border with Iran. It is the seat of Ağrı Province and Ağrı District.

. She worked as a treasury

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

until in 1980 she went into exile, due to the political situation after the

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

. Even after an amnesty she did not return. Before returning to Turkey to stand for election, she worked for many years for women and human rights organizations.

Political career

After joining the

(DTP) she was involved in the female branch of the party. She was elected as Mayor of Tunceli in the local elections of 2009 for the DTP as one of two female mayors in the 81 provincial capitals. In 2010 she was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the

Malatya Malatya (; ; Syriac language, Syriac ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of y ...

3rd Heavy Penal Court on charges of making propaganda for an illegal organisation. In the parliamentary elections of June 2015 she was elected as a

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

representing the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) for

Political positions

She is for a stronger representation of women in politics, emphasized the role the DTP had in this furtherance. Regarding the atrocities against Kurds during the

Dersim Rebellion The Dersim massacre, also known as Dersim genocide, was carried out by the Turkish military over the course of three operations in the Dersim Province (renamed Tunceli) against Kurds, Kurdish rebels of Kurdish Alevism, Alevi faith, and civilians ...

she demanded the Turkish Government to open the archives. Elected mayor of Tunceli, Şahin campaigned against the construction of the Munzur Dam.

Imprisonment

In November 2016 Şahin was arrested in Tunceli over alleged links with the

PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurdish militant political organization and armed gue ...

. In December 2017 she was sentenced to 8 years and 9 months imprisonment. In prison she took up writing and contributed to Gültan Kisanak's book ''The Color Purple of Kurdish Politics.''

Personal life

Şahin is married with two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sahin, Edibe 1960 births Living people People from Nazımiye Democratic Society Party politicians Turkish human rights activists Women mayors of places in Turkey 21st-century Kurdish people Kurdish Alevis Mayors of places in Turkey Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey 21st-century Turkish women politicians Kurdish women in politics Kurdish politicians