Nuray was born in 1970 in Ankara. After studying health vocational high school, she was appointed as a nurse in 1989. When she was working in public hospitals in different cities, she became an activist in the Health Workers Union for the right to equal health for all. Meanwhile, she studied philosophy at Ege University in Izmir. She also fought for students’ rights during her student years. Due to both of her activism, she was detained and lawsuits were filed against her.

A few years after graduating from university, in 2004,  she started working in public high schools as a philosophy teacher. At that time, she became a member and activist of the Education and Science Workers Union (which is a part of the Confederation of Public Employees Trade Union / KESK) and fought for equal, scientific, secular, and democratic education. She was repeatedly subjected to judicial and administrative investigation due to her legal and peaceful actions such as press statements and rallies she made together with the union.

After the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, the government dismissed and imprisoned thousands of dissidents, and published their names in the official newspaper and on the internet. They used this coup attempt as an opportunity to eliminate the opposition.  Nuray, too, was fired on February 7, 2017, for her criticism of the government and her fight for democratic rights. The government closed the legal ways for all these people and set up a commission (the State of Emergency Commission) to evaluate the files. She organized press statements and sit-ins with her union. Thanks to these activities she carried out with her union, they received the Human Rights Association Freedom of Thought and Speech award in 2017. But these legal actions of her cited as a reason for her detention several times and lawsuits being filed against her. The commission, which she applied to return to her job, after five years, decided to refuse her case in 2022. After this decision, it became possible to follow the legal ways. She applied to the administrative court, but the court refused her case. She applied to the court of appeal. The judicial process is still ongoing.

While all this was happening, she also completed her master’s degree in Philosophy and Social Thought at Istanbul Bilgi University, in 2022.

She has also been a member and an activist in the Human Rights Association / Insan Haklari Dernegi (IHD) Istanbul Branch for five years. In addition to reporting and receiving applications, she also worked in the Commission Against Racism and Discrimination in IHD. Since she now lives in France, although she cannot work in this association actively, she continues to support it as a member.

She stayed in Paris between March and December 2022, as she was invited as one of the laureates of the Marianne Initiative program for human rights defenders, launched by the French Presidency. During this program, she met politicians, journalists, and NGO members, talked about human rights violations, and tried to be one of the voices of the people who suffer injustice and are oppressed in Turkey.

She moved to France in March 2023. As a human rights defender, she continues to fight against violations and dreams of a world without torture, without the death penalty, without discrimination, without prison, in peace, egalitarian, libertarian, just, and democratic.