Gültan Kışanak was born in Elazığ, Turkey in 1961. She started her political activities during high school years in the 1970s, while the Kurds were not being recognized as a distinct ethno-national group in Turkey. She enrolled Education Faculty at Dicle University, Diyarbakir but had to drop be-cause of her imprisonment during the military junta period (1980-83). She was incarcerated for 2.5 years in Diyarbakir Military Prison No 5, known as one of the most notorious prisons ever existed in the world.
After she was released, she studied Journalism and Public Relations at Ege University in Izmir.
Afterwards, she worked in a variety of positions ranging from news correspondent to editor in chief in several newspapers including Yeni Ülke and Özgür Gündem, distributed country-wide.
She was one of pioneering figures in Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1990s. Kurdish parties were allowed by central government to take part in municipal elections by 1999. Thus she started to work as a Social Services advisor in Baglar district, the poorest area in Amed/Diyarbakir and coordinated a number of social projects towards empowerment of women and the poor.
She successfully run for parliament elections as an independent candidate backed by pro-Kurdish party in 2007 and served as an MP in national assembly for two terms. She was the co-chair of the party between 2009-2014 until she was nominated for the municipality elections in 2014 when she was elected as the co-mayor of Amed/Diyarbakir together with Mr. Firat Anli. She is married and has one daughter.