In 2014 she was elected Mayor of Diyarbakır.[9] On 25 October 2016 she was detained by Turkish authorities, as was co-mayor Fırat Anlı, "on thinly supported charges of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)".[10] The Turkish government ordered a general internet blackout after the arrest.[11] Nevertheless, on 26 October, several thousand demonstrators at Diyarbakir city hall demanded the mayors’ release.[10] In November, public prosecutors demanded a 230-year prison sentence for Kışanak.[12] In February 2019 she was sentenced to 14 years and 3 months in prison for "being a member of a terrorist organization" and for "propaganda of a terrorist organization".[13] In prison, she took up writing again, and the wrote the book The Color Purple of Kurdish Politics about women in politics.[14]