Av. Özlem ZENGİN Science Committee Member

She was born in Tokat on September 9, 1969, and completed her primary and secondary education in Tokat and high school in Izmir. Intending to study mathematical engineering, Zengin later decided that law was a mathematical process encoded in words instead of numbers and preferred to study law. She graduated from Istanbul University Law School in 1990. During her studies, she wrote for Teklif, a legal and current affairs magazine. After graduation, she lived in the USA for a while and worked as a teacher for a year upon her return. Then, between 1998 and 2001, she worked as a producer and presenter in the program “Hayatin Icinden” on Channel 7. In 2001, she founded Istanbul Women and Family Research Center IKAMER with her close friends. In 2003, she was elected as a member of the Istanbul Provincial Board of AK Party.
From 2005, she served as Vice Provincial for Publicity and Media. Until 2011, she served three consecutive terms on the Provincial Council. Years later, she returned to academic life to pursue her master’s degree. She received her master’s degree from Marmara University Institute of Social Sciences in the field of Sociology of Religion with her thesis on “Sociological Change in the Perception of Religion and Secularism in the Light of Supreme Court Decisions”.

During the same period, she worked as a columnist for Yeni Akit newspaper. On May 12, 2012, she was elected as AK Party Istanbul Provincial Women’s Branch Chairperson at the Third Ordinary Istanbul Provincial Women’s Branch Congress and served in this position until March 14, 2015. She is a founding member of Beyaz El Solidarity Association, a founding member of Women and Democracy Association “KADEM”, a member of the Board of Trustees of Istanbul Commerce University. She continues to work in the field of media and prepares and presents the program “Ince Fikir” on Ulke TV, where the Turkish and world agenda is evaluated especially from the perspective of women.