The singer-songwriter was jailed on Thursday awaiting trial on charges of inciting hatred after a video of her onstage comment was broadcast in April by a pro-government media outlet. While several deputy ministers condemned Gulsen’s words, her arrest drew a backlash from critics who see President Tayyip Erdogan’s government as seeking to punish those who oppose her conservative views. A State Department spokesman said it remained concerned about widespread efforts in Turkey to limit expression through censorship and judicial harassment following Gulsen’s detention. Protesters in Istanbul criticized what they called an inconsistency between the judiciary’s inaction on violence against women and the swift investigation and arrest of the artist. Many say Gulsen was targeted for her liberal views and support for LGBT+ rights. “Hundreds of women would be alive today if men who attacked other women were captured as quickly as Gulsen,” organizers of the Istanbul demonstration told protesters over a loudspeaker. Her arrest is the latest injustice against “women who don’t fit the mold” or aren’t “the type of woman the government wants,” they said. In the video of her performance in April, Gulsen refers to a musician in her band and says lightly: “He studied in an Imam Hatip (school) in the past. That’s where his perversion comes from.” Erdogan, whose Islamist-rooted party first came to power two decades ago, himself studied at one of Turkey’s first Imam Hatip schools, which were established by the state to train young men as imams and preachers. , but have since skyrocketed in number. Gulsen apologized Thursday to anyone offended by her comments, saying they were seized upon by those seeking to polarize society. (Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington and Azra Ceylan in Istanbul; Writing by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Daniel Wallis, William Maclean)
