Women in Turkey

For today we have for you another post about women in Turkey written by our trainee Yasemin:

Safak Pavey, a member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, is mostly known for her determined and self-confident stance. In her speeches, she bravely criticizes the failures of the government and offers ways to solve the problems. Her style is appreciated by mostly secularists and republicans.

But there is another thing that makes Safak Pavey special and different from the rest of the Assembly. She is the first "disabled" female member of the Turkish Parliament. She lost her left arm and left leg in a train accident, when she was 20. Thus, she uses prosthesis. 

However, this unfortunate incident didn't prevent her from pursuing her goals.  She went to London to study International Relations. Later, she worked in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2012, she was elected deputy at the Republican People’s Party, and she is still a member of the parliament.

Safak Pavey is not only an important figure in Turkish political history, being the first "disabled" woman in the parliament, but she is also a powerful person who has never given up despite the obstacles that she faced.