Semanur Karaman is a feminist activist from Turkey who specializes in freedoms pertaining to civil society with a specific focus on women human rights defenders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She has worked as the Women Human Rights Defenders coordinator at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID). Prior to joining AWID, she worked as a policy and advocacy officer for the global civil society organization, CIVICUS, and as a researcher for the local Turkish NGO, Third Sector Foundation of Turkey (TÜSEV). She has also worked as parliamentary assistant at the UK Parliament and consulted and conducted research for various global human-rights research projects. Semanur obtained a bachelors degree in history and international relations from Koç University in Istanbul, an MA in human rights and cultural diversity at the University of Essex and had a fellowship in public policy and democracy at the London School of Economics.