Turkish elections with a transgender candidate

Turkish transgender woman Deva Ozenen didn’t know if she’d ever find a way out of prostitution twenty years ago. She faced daily discrimination and violence and sex work was all she could do to support herself. Now, the tide has turned in Turkey and the 37-year-old is making history by vying for a seat in Turkish Parliament on June 7.

She is running for the secular Anatolia Party created six months ago by female politician Emine Ulker Tarhan.

Ozenen knows that she is an outsider in a country where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is known for his Quran-inspired rhetoric, but for Ozenen just being in the election race is a small step in the right direction. “If I’m elected, I will be the voice of the oppressed,” she says, aiming to promote real legislation that supports the rights of LGBT people.