Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Right to Speak.

About Elif Shafak's TED Talk

Turkish novelist Elif Shafak has seen firsthand what can happen when a country restricts free speech. She says democracy depends on the right to openly exchange diverse, even oppositional, ideas.

About Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning novelist and one of the most widely read female writers in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English. She has published 15 books, 10 of which are novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love, and her most recent, Three Daughters of Eve. Her books have been published in 48 languages. Shafak has taught in universities in Turkey, the U.S., and the U.K., and she is currently a visiting professor at Oxford University. She is also a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and has been featured in the Financial Times, The Guardian, and The New York Times, among other publications.

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