Oya Baydar was born in Istanbul in 1940. She wrote her first novel at the age of seventeen. After graduating from the Sociology Department of Istanbul University, she continued her academic work in the same department. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was actively involved in the socialist movement; she was arrested during the March 12 period and later lived in exile in Germany after the September 12 coup. After 1989, she returned to literature and continued writing novels. Alongside her literary work, she remains active in peace and democracy movements.