Gültan Kışanak was born on 15 June 1961 in Elazığ province of Turkey. After graduating from Teacher Training School in Elazığ, she began studying at the Faculty of Education of Dicle University but she was arrested in 1980 when she was 19 years old. She was held in the Diyarbakir Prison between 1980 and 1982. She was tortured in the prison. After being released from the prison, she began studying journalism at Ege University in Izmir province in 1986. She founded a newspaper called “Toplumsal Direniş” in the early 1990s. However, its broadcast life did not last long. She wrote for the newspaper Yeni Ülke. She worked as an editor in chief, an editorial coordinator or news director in a variety of newspapers such as Özgür Gündem and Özgür Ülke. She worked as a journalist until 2002. She has been in the women's movement since 1997. She became a social policy consultant in the Bağlar Municipality in Diyarbakır province. She was an independent candidate within the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in the 2007 parliamentary election in Turkey and she became an MP for Diyarbakır. In 2009, she became the co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party. She was elected as an independent candidate from southeastern Siirt province in2009. In March 2014 she was elected as co-mayor of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality. She was detained for her political stance and she has been behind bars.