Özlem was born in Turkey in 1976. The family moved to Denmark at the start of the 1980s. She is married to Devrim and has three children Furkan, Yasmin Aze and Yusuf.
Özlem was the first in her family to go to high school after which she completed a nursing education. She worked in the psychiatric department from 2000 to 2007 with mentally ill children and youths, traumatised refugees and drug addicts.
Özlem was elected to the Danish parliament and served from 2007 to 2015 as one of the first female politicians with a Muslim immigrant background. Since 2015, Özlem has been giving talks and providing advice in Denmark, and internationally, on how to build bridges between ethnic minorities, companies, organisations and local government. She devised the dialogue coffee concept, which involves her regularly holding dialogue coffee meetings, where she contacts people who have sent her hate mail and arranges to meet them for a coffee - usually in their home. This is based on the belief that what binds us together is far greater than what separates us.
In 2018, she became only the second Dane in history to give a TED-Talk, which was about her experiences with dialogue coffee.
Özlem is also the founder and chairwoman of a non-profit organization called Bridgebuilders – Denmark´s first Centre for Dialogue Coffee, which aims to prevent hate and violence. Learn more about the organization www.brobyggerne.dk
Özlem is an author and written several books and children´s books. She has received four prizes for democracy in Denmark for her work with dialogue.
Özlem was the first in her family to go to high school after which she completed a nursing education. She worked in the psychiatric department from 2000 to 2007 with mentally ill children and youths, traumatised refugees and drug addicts.
Özlem was elected to the Danish parliament and served from 2007 to 2015 as one of the first female politicians with a Muslim immigrant background. Since 2015, Özlem has been giving talks and providing advice in Denmark, and internationally, on how to build bridges between ethnic minorities, companies, organisations and local government. She devised the dialogue coffee concept, which involves her regularly holding dialogue coffee meetings, where she contacts people who have sent her hate mail and arranges to meet them for a coffee - usually in their home. This is based on the belief that what binds us together is far greater than what separates us.
In 2018, she became only the second Dane in history to give a TED-Talk, which was about her experiences with dialogue coffee.
Özlem is also the founder and chairwoman of a non-profit organization called Bridgebuilders – Denmark´s first Centre for Dialogue Coffee, which aims to prevent hate and violence. Learn more about the organization www.brobyggerne.dk
Özlem is an author and written several books and children´s books. She has received four prizes for democracy in Denmark for her work with dialogue.
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