Sebahat Tuncel, born 1975, is a Turkish Politician, Women's rights advocate, former nurse and member of the parliament in Turkey. Tuncel was actually elected a member of parliament while being in prison -- this story is to follow. Before advancing her political career through the Women's Branch of the People's Democracy party in 1998, Tuncel's studied cartography and land surveying in Mersin University. Tuncel became the women's spokesperson of the Democratic Society Party. Tuncel has also worked with the United Nations, and Amnesty International throughout her political career. In 2006, Tuncel was arrested due to allegations that she was a member of the PKK, or the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The PKK was a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement. After Tuncel applied as an independent candidate from behind the bars of prison, she won a seat in Istanbul with 93,000 votes. Tuncel was elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey from prison, coming as a shock to many. Throughout her political career, Tuncel has worked and demanded for improvements for the cultural rights of the Kurdish Populations in Tukey, as Tuncel came from such backgrounds. Tuncel even made a number of statements for Turkey to recognize he Armenian genocide in 2014, which was the destruction of the Armenian people and their identities in the Ottoman Empire during WWI. Tuncel presented the Armenian Genocide Recognition Bill in the Turkish Parliament, urging the Turkish president to publicly apologize. Tuncel's career landed her in prison numerous times. Once was in 2016 when she had a membership in the DTP, another was in 2019, after she joined a hunger strike and another was in 2020, after she insulted the Turkish president. Overall, Tuncel's political journey has landed her in prison a few times, however, her commitment to the changes within Turkey inspires many.

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