) is a Turkish

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 chemical engineer

Chemical engineer

In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...

 and politician. On July 6, 2011 she was appointed as the Minister of Family and Social Politics in the third cabinet of Erdoğan

She was born on June 20, 1966 in Gaziantep

Gaziantep

Gaziantep , Ottoman Turkish: Ayintab) previously and still informally called Antep; ʻayn tāb is a city in southeast Turkey and amongst the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city is located 185 kilometres northeast of Adana and 127 kilometres by road north of Aleppo, Syria...

 to Mustafa and Perihan. She was educated in chemical engineering

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

 at the Istanbul Technical University

Istanbul Technical University

Istanbul Technical University is an international technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third oldest technical university dedicated to engineering sciences as well as social sciences recently, and is one of the most prominent educational institutions in Turkey...

. Fatma Şahin worked as an engineer and manager in the textile industry.

She entered politics together with her husband İzzet Şahin and co-founded the Justice and Development Party

Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...

. Taking active part in the provincial organization, she was elected three times deputy from her hometown. She is the first female member of the parliament elected from Gaziantep and Southeastern Anatolia Region

Southeastern Anatolia Region

Southeastern Anatolia Region is one of Turkey's seven census-defined geographical regions . It is bordered by the Mediterranean Region to the west, the Eastern Anatolia Region to the north, Syria to the south, and Iraq to the southeast.-Provinces:...

. Fatma Şahin served as the chairperson of women's branch of her party.

Following the 2011 general elections

Turkish general election, 2011

Turkey's 17th general election was held on 12 June 2011 to elect 550 new members of Grand National Assembly. They were Turkey's first non-early elections in 34 years.-Background:...

, she became the only female minister in the third cabinet of Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party , which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara...

.

She is mother of a son and a daughter.