Merve Safa Kavakcı (born 19 August 1968) is a Turkish politician who was elected to parliament as a Virtue Party deputy for Istanbul on 18 April 1999 but was never able to take office.

Kavakcı is currently a professor at George Washington University and Howard University in Washington D.C. On 2 May 1999, members of the Democratic Left Party (Turkish: Demokratik Sol Parti, DSP) prevented Kavakcı from taking her oath of office at the swearing-in ceremony because they objected to her wearing a headscarf.

In addition to lecturing at universities throughout Europe and the United States, Kavakcı addressed the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona.

She also addressed the House of Lords in London, England, and has lectured and spoken at myriad American and European Universities including Harvard, Yale, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Duisburg and Cambridge.

[8] In 2012, a book entitled The Day Turkey Stood Still: Merve Kavakci's Walk Into the Parliament by Richard Peres was published.