Edibe Şahin (born 1960 in

Nazımiye Nazımiye (, or briefly ''Qisle''; ku, Qisle, italic=yes) is a municipality (''belde'') and seat of the Nazımiye District of Tunceli Province in Turkey. It had a population of 1,262 in 2021. It is populated by Kurds of the Arel tribe. The mai ...

Tunceli Tunceli ( ku, Dêrsim) is a city and municipality in eastern Turkey. It is the capital of Tunceli Province, located in the middle of the Eastern Anatolia Region. The city has a Kurds, Kurdish-majority population and was a site of the Dersim rebel ...

, Turkey) was the mayor of the municipality of

(Mamekiye), the capital of

Tunceli Province Tunceli Province ( tr, Tunceli ili, ku, Parêzgeha Dêrsimê, Zazaki: ), formerly Dersim Province, is located in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The least densely-populated province in Turkey, it was originally named ''Dersim Province' ...

Eastern Anatolia The Eastern Anatolia Region ('' tr, Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi'') 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 Se ...

, for the

Democratic Society Party The Democratic Society Party ( tr, Demokratik Toplum Partisi, 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 Soci ...

(DTP). She is of

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...

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 ( ku, Agirî; ) is the capital of Ağrı Province in eastern Turkey, near the border with Iran. Formerly known as Karaköse ( ku, Qerekose) from the early Turkish republican period until 1946, and before that as Karakilise ( ota, قره‌� ...

. She worked as a treasury

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

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 War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...

. 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 ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city ha ...

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 ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

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 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 PKK is a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla warfare, guerrilla List of guerrilla movements, movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based ...

. 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 Politicians arrested in Turkey Kurdish women in politics Kurdish politicians