Our Team

Osman Dulgeroglu is the CEO of Advocates of Silenced Turkey, headquartered in Fairfield, NJ. Before joining the organization in 2024, he served as the CEO of Embrace Relief Foundation (2013–2024). From 2005 to 2013, Mr. Dulgeroglu held various Executive Director roles in other nonprofits, including Dream School in Pittsburgh and the Federation of Balkan American Associations in NJ. He also serves as the vice president of the FBI Newark Citizens Academy Alumni Association. Osman holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Marmara University in Istanbul.

Hafza Girdap serves as the Spokesperson and Program Director for Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST) and is a founding member of the Set Them Free platform. Dr. Girdap earned her Ph.D. in Women’s and Gender Studies from Stony Brook University, New York.

With a B.A. and M.A. in English Language and Literature, her research focuses on human rights and the status of women in the Global South—particularly in Muslim-majority contexts—with a specific concentration on the racialization and reidentification experiences of immigrant women and the ways they exercise agency.

Beyond her academic work, Dr. Girdap is a nonresident research associate with the Gender Program at the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). She is also the first elected Chair of the Muslim+ Feminists Caucus within the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), where she currently serves as Co-Chair.

In both her grassroots activism and academic research, Dr. Girdap centers the voices of female survivors of conflict, examining the coping mechanisms they employ to navigate challenges such as social discrimination, oppression, and violations of basic rights—whether in their home countries or new settlements. By framing reidentification as a form of agency, her work not only highlights the complexities of identity negotiation but also challenges epistemic dominance by contributing to alternative modes of knowledge production.

Since relocating to the United States in July 2016 due to political persecution in her native Turkey, Dr. Girdap has expanded her research and advocacy in the field of women’s rights. Over the past three years, she has organized and spoken at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) panels, focusing on the lived experiences and urgent needs of women. She also mentors youth, encouraging their engagement as researchers and speakers in these global forums.

Aslıhan Kas was born in 1981, in Erzurum, Turkey. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Istanbul University. For 17 years, she worked as a teacher and held various leadership roles in educational institutions across Turkey. In 2018, she relocated to New Jersey, USA.

Since then, Aslıhan has been actively involved with Advocates of Silenced Turkey, where she serves as a board member and coordinates the Exhibition of Silent Screams project. She is also the director of two human rights documentaries, The Other Children and Metamorphosis.

Aslıhan is the co-author of the book Being the Other in Turkey, available on Amazon. She is married and the mother of two children.