Key takeaways Turkey’s transition to a hyper-centralized presidential system has given rise to a growing malaise in the educational and cultural fields, manifested through purges, witch hunts, and the erosion of university autonomy and resulting in an exodus of the creative classes and cultural institutions. Academic and cultural impoverishment not …

Iran’s ongoing protests were sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in a hospital in Tehran one month ago after she was detained by the so-called “morality police” (Gasht-e Ershad) for allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly.

On an early autumn day in Tehran, the morality police arrested in a city park a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was in the capital on a family visit, bundled her into a van and drove her to the police station. The detention of Mahsa Amini on September 13 set in …