Turkish pop star Gülsen Çolakoğlu was arrested on charges of “inciting people to hatred and hostility and insulting the public” for making jokes about religious schools in Turkey. This was reported by the state news agency Anatolia.
The accusations stem from a video circulating on social media of a Gülşen concert in April in which he joked about one of the musicians.
He graduated from Imam Hatip (religious schools). That’s where his crooked side comes in,” he said.
Following that, several Twitter users shared a video with a hashtag calling for his arrest and saying it’s offensive to associate schools with perverts.
According to her lawyer, Emek Emre, Gülşen denies committing any crime and is objecting to her arrest.
Gülşen apologized to ‘anyone who was offended by the joke’ in the post she shared on her official social media account after she was detained, and said the joke was misrepresented by ‘malicious people trying to polarize our country’.
“I pranked my co-workers with whom I worked for years. It was published by people trying to polarize society, ”the singer wrote.
Yıldız later stated in her statement that this was a “bad joke” and demanded that she be released, saying that she had a child dependent on her and would come to court or the police station if necessary.
Gülşen had previously been criticized by Turkish conservative groups for displaying her stage outfits and supporting the LGBT community.
The Muslim-majority country is officially secular, but highly polarized on issues related to secularism, religion, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights.
Imam Hatip Schools, which teach religious knowledge as well as the Turkish curriculum, have grown in popularity and size in the two decades that the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) was in power.
Schools are known for training young people as imams or preachers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, like many AKP members, went to school.