Rezan Zuğurlu

Rezan Zuğurlu was mayor of the Turkish district of Lice in Diyarbakır Province. She is a member of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

Rezan Zuğurlu
Former Mayor of Lice
In office
April 2014 – Februar 2017
Preceded byFikriye Aydın
Personal details
Born1988/1989 (age 31–32)[1]
Political partyPeace and Democracy Party
OccupationStudent

Personal life

Zuğurlu was born into a family of Kurdish activists and grew up in southeastern Turkey during an armed uprising for political rights among the Kurdish people. She considers herself a feminist and hopes her position as mayor would help better the lives of women in the district. She stated that she gets a feeling of solidarity with Berivan Elif Kilic, Mayor of the town of Kocakoy, who was married off at the age of 15 into an abusive household, as well as Gultan Kisanak, female mayor of Diyarbakir. She is a student of Radio and Television Broadcasting and attends night-school after her day's work.[1]

Prosecution

At the age of 22, Zuğurlu protested in solidarity with several Kurdish prisoners which resulted in her getting arrested and sentenced to a 4 years 2 months prison term, of which she spent 13 months in pretrial detention. She was released due to an appeal.[2] Two years after being released from prison, in March 2014, she ran for public office, for the post of mayor.

Political career

At the age of 25, she became the youngest mayor in Turkey,[1] winning over 90% of the votes.[3] She assumed office in April 2014,[4] after winning the election in March 2014.[5] Zuğurlu was among several female mayor candidates fielded by the party at that time, which also included 27-year-old Leyla İmret, who was elected as in Cizre, in Şırnak province.[4] In February 2017 she was dismissed as mayor and a trustee was appointed instead.[2] On 17 August 2017, she was arrested due to the anterior sentence that came into effect. In September she was transferred from Diyarbakır E Type Prison to the Van T Type Prison.[6]

References
  1. "Meet Turkey's Youngest Mayor, A 25-Year-Old Female Former Political Prisoner". Lice. Huffington Post. 11 April 2014. Retrieved Apr 12, 2014.
  2. Kurdistan24. "Youngest Kurdish mayor jailed in Turkey". Kurdistan24. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  3. "Diyarbakır Lice BDP belediye başkanı Rezan Zuğurli kimdir" (in Turkish). Kirikhan Haber. 1 April 2014. Retrieved Apr 12, 2014.
  4. "Southeastern town elects 27-year-old female candidate for mayor". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved Apr 12, 2014.
  5. "SOUTHEASTERN TOWNS ELECT TURKEY'S YOUNGEST FEMALE MAYORS". Daily Sabah. 1 April 2014. Retrieved Apr 13, 2014.
  6. SCF (2017-09-11). "Turkish gov't transfers Lice co-mayor Zuğurli from Diyarbakır Prison to Van Prison with her 1-year-old sick son". Stockholm Center for Freedom. Retrieved 2019-11-17.


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