Turkish Pop Star Jailed For Joking About Religious Schools
The 46-year-old singer-songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Kolakoglou, was taken away for questioning from her home in Istanbul and formally arrested late Thursday before being taken to prison to await trial. The arrest sparked outrage on social media. Critics of the government said the move was an attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate his religious and conservative base of support ahead of elections in 10 months. The charges were based on a joke Gulsen made during a concert in Istanbul in April, when she quipped that one of her musicians’ “perversion” came from the fact that he went to a religious school....