Foto: Lina Alriksson
Aslı Ceren Aslan was born in 1990 in Istanbul and graduated from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Department of Mathematics in 2014. Between 2014 and 2021, she worked as a journalist, editor and chief editor at Yeni Demokrat Kadın magazine and Özgür Gelecek newspaper. She was imprisoned in Urfa Closed Prison No 2 from 2017 to 2019. Due to her journalistic activities, Aslan received a grant from GeoAIR, an artist organisation based in Georgia, to research LGBTQ communities and gender inequality in the region. During 2021-2022, she lived in Tbilisi and wrote numerous articles and reports on these issues. From 2022 to 2024, she was admitted to ICORN (International Cities of Refuge Network), an organisation for journalists, writers and artists under political threat, thus becoming a refuge writer for Växjö.
Aslan’s narrative book ‘Birbirimizin Çaresiyiz’ about how Turkish politics affects the lives of women and LGBTI people was published by SRC Publishing in Turkey and in Swedish translation ‘Bara vi själva kan rädda varandra’ by Trolltrumma Publishing in Sweden in November 2023.
Aslan currently lives in Växjö. She participates as a speaker in panels, seminars and conferences on freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of the press. She also continues to organise workshops for LGBTI+ and women and teaches Turkish at Folkuniversitetet.