Özlem Cekic

Who is Özlem Cekic?

Özlem Sara Cekic is a Danish politician, member of parliament for the Socialist People's Party. A nurse by training she was first elected to the central committee of the Socialist People's Party in 2004. In the 2007 elections, she became a member of the Danish parliament, the first female MP with a Muslim immigrant background. She is her party's spokesperson for health related issues. In the 2011 elections the Socialist People's Party lost many of the seats they had gained in the 2007 elections, including one seat in her electorate, which meant that either she or the other SF candidate Kamal Qureshi would have to leave parliament. After a count of the personal votes, Cekic was declared the winner with 5383 personal votes against Qureshi's 1977.

Born in Ankara, Turkey, from a Kurdish background she arrived in Denmark as a young child and grew up in Copenhagen's Vesterbro neighborhood. At 20 she entered a marriage arranged by her parents, but at age 26 she decided to divorce and raise her child alone. She was encouraged by her maternal grandmother who told her that she should strive never to be dependent on anybody, least of all on men.She is now married and has three children.