President of Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality
She was born in 1966 in Gaziantep. She completed her primary, secondary and high school education in Gaziantep, and her higher education at Istanbul Technical University, Department of Chemistry and Metallurgy.
She worked as an Operations Engineer and Operations Manager in a private company at the beginning of her career.
In 2001, she became the Gaziantep Provincial Founding Member of the Justice and Development Party. She was elected as the first female MP from Gaziantep in the 2002 general parliamentary elections. She served as a Gaziantep Deputy in the Turkish Grand National Assembly in the 22nd, 23rd and 24th legislative years.
During her tenure at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, she served as a member of the Industry, Trade and Energy Commission, a member of the Turkish-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission and the Chairman of the Violence Against Women and Children Research Commission.
She was appointed as the Founding Minister of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies in the 61st government established after the 2011 general parliamentary election. Thus, she received the title of the first female Minister of the Southeastern Anatolia Region.
The Turkish Foundation for the Disabled chose Minister Fatma Şahin as the Woman of the Year for her work with the disabled.
In the local elections held on March 30, 2014, she was elected as one of the first female metropolitan mayors of Turkey and became the Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality. She was elected as the Chairman of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey on May 8, 2018.
In the local elections held on March 31, 2019, she was re-elected as the Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality.
She served as the President of the Asian Mayors Forum 2016-2019, the Vice President of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) from 2016 to 2019, and the Head of the Middle East and West Asia Division of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG-MEWA) from 2016 to 2019. She has also been serving as the Vice-President of the European Council of Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) since 2014.
Şahin, who is married and has two children, continues her duties as the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality.
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