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An Istanbul court Monday moved one of Turkiye’s biggest pop stars from jail to house arrest pending trial on charges of “inciting hatred” by making a joke about religious schools.
Gulsen Bayraktar Colakoglu, 46, who uses her first name on stage, was jailed last Thursday, sparking an outcry from her legion of fans and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political foes.
Although she made the joke on stage in April, it went viral on social media after being re-posted by a pro-government daily last week.
Top members of Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party then voiced moral outrage, turning her joke into another divisive issue roiling the polarised country 10 months before crunch national polls.
Gulsen had quipped that her guitarist’s “perversion” was rooted in his upbringing in an Imam Hatip school, which specialises in religious education combined with a modern curriculum.
Erdogan himself went to such a school.
“Our Imam Hatip schools came under attack from serious threats,” Erdogan told one of his daily rallies a few hours after Gulsen’s release.
“For years, they tried to exclude my people,” he said in reference to decades of staunchly secular Turkish rule.
“They were trying to intimidate and frighten our people, whom they insulted and called stupid… We will be vigilant and not allow ourselves to be subjugated to that again.”
Turkiye is a predominantly Muslim but officially secular state.
