Dr.. Meryem Kanmaz is a graduate of the Erasmus University in Brussels and also studied political science at the Brussel’s Free University, where her graduate thesis considered the secularisation process in Turkey (Thank God We are Secular, an analysis of the Turkish secularisation project).
Until May 1999, she worked as coordinator of the Casa Blanca Centre for migrant women in Vilvoorde. More recently, Meryem has been associated with De Standaard, where she worked as a journalist, and Ghent University, where she received a doctorate in political and social sciences, with her essay, Moskeeën in Gent: Tussen Subcultuur en Sociale Beweging. Emancipatiedynamieken van Moslimminderheden in de Diaspora [Mosques in Ghent: Between Subculture and Social Movement. Emancipatory Dynamics in the Muslim Minorities of the Belgian Diaspora].
Information valid as of autumn 2012.