Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş

Born in Brussels in 1982, Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş completed her undergraduate and master’s studies at the Faculty of Economics, Political and Social Sciences of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Her political career in Europe began in 2005 as Deputy Chair of the CDH Party’s Schaerbeek branch. In 2006 she was elected to the Schaerbeek Municipal Council in Brussels. In the 2009 elections she became the first headscarf-wearing member of parliament in Europe, entering the Brussels Parliament. Until 2019, in this role she served as Deputy Chair of the Social Affairs Committee and Deputy Chair of the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Brussels Parliament.

Throughout her political career she worked, both in the Brussels Parliament and with various civil society organisations, on women’s employment, women’s entrepreneurship, violence against women, domestic violence, equal opportunities, the environment and urban planning. She also played an active role in combating discrimination and Islamophobia.

In 2015 she was expelled from her party on the grounds that she did not recognise the claims of the Armenian genocide, and continued her mandate as an independent member of parliament. In Brussels, where the Turkey Democracy Platform carried out its first fact-finding trip after the 15 July failed coup attempt, she was the architect of talks with EU and Belgian institutions.

She contributed for two years to the “Forgotten Women Project”, launched by the European Network Against Racism to increase the visibility of Muslim women in Europe.

She was named in “The Muslim 500”, the annual list of the world’s most influential Muslims published by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan, for three consecutive years. In 2009 she received the “Pioneer and Role Model Woman Award” from the New Arabic Woman Forum. In 2019 she was named one of the 100 most influential women in Belgium, and the same year she was awarded the Order of Leopold in recognition of her work in Belgium.

Since 2019 she has also served as a member of the Women’s Advisory Commission of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In 2020, with her appointment as Ambassador to Algeria, she became Türkiye’s first female ambassador in North Africa.

On 4 June 2023 she was appointed Minister of Family and Social Services in the cabinet announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Fluent in French, English and Dutch, Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş is married and the mother of two children.