Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister has sparked outcry by declaring women should not laugh loudly in public.
Bulent Arinc, one of the co-founders of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), made the comment on Monday while lamenting the moral decline of modern society.
“A man should be moral but women should be moral as well, they should know what is decent and what is not decent,” Arinc said in a speech in the western Bursa region for the Bayram holiday that marks the end of Ramazan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims.
“She should not laugh loudly in front of all the world and should preserve her decency at all times,” he added.
Turkish women took to social media in droves to denounce the comments, posting pictures of themselves deliriously laughing under the hashtags #kahkaha (#laughter) and #direnkahkaha (#resistlaughter) which have now gone viral.
The ruling AKP is accused by critics of seeking to erode Turkey’s strict separation of religion and state – the basis of the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Arinc went on to denounce a moral degradation that left society awash with drugs and prostitution, and lashed out at popular Turkish soap operas for encouraging lax lifestyles, in comments quoted throughout the Turkish media and online.
He pointed to the use of bonzai, a synthetic drug which has become a craze in some parts of low income Turkish society and is now a serious social problem.
“We have to rediscover the Quran. We have gone backwards, morally,” Arinc said.
“We have become a very different society.”
Arinc also said a man should be strongly “tied to his wife and love his children” while a woman should “protect her husband’s honour”.
He denounced the excessive use of cars, saying that if even the “river Nile was filled with petrol”, there wouldn’t be enough to go around. Arinc also slammed the excessive use of mobile phones in Turkish society, with women “spending hours on the phone to swap recipe”.
Rightly said by the PM , AS THE majority of Turkish population is muslim so he can promote islamic laws, and to be frank there is no way we can rule religion completely out of the state . Even in America some religious views are more supported than others .
If France(secular) can ban hijab then the Turkish pm did nothing wrong
U FING SLAVETRADER AULAAD SHUT UP ..WHERE ISLAM SAYS WOMEN CANNOT LAUGH ..DID UR MOTHER NEVER LAUGHED ?NO WONDER ..
Islam allows the women to cover their heads with hijab
Stop worrying about people’s religion. Worry about yours and constantly check yourself against feeling of superiority.
TURKEY DEPUTY PM MOTHER NEVER LAUGHED AFTER HE WAS BORN
Turkey was the most religious place on the planet before communist Kemal killed it. Islam and state can not be two things.
Islam is a way if life and should remain as such. Well done to the Turkish pm for reversing the damaging modernization of Turkey – and re installing faith as a base of society.
Outspoken your an idiot!!
AZ TERIMAAKIHARAAMZADASOBKANJARITERIMAA-IMRANKHANKAKUTAA
Just like in Pakistan now we can expect radicalization in beautiful manner in Turkey too!
turkey sc8ms are kaafirs kanjars pm deputy pm -thats why students are protesting ..yet these turkeykanjars are killing shias muslims in syria iraq etc .. turkey bosses are ALLHARAAMS SHAITANS FIRANGIGULAMSDALAALS*OF THEIR OWN MOTHERS ..AND NAAPAKS IN PAKISTAN GO SUCKING TURKEYDINGLINGS..TURKEY ARE ENEMIES OF REAL ISLAM – REAL SLAVES SLAVESTRADERS –NO SACH NO HAQ IN TURKEY ..
How decent is the deputy PM of Turkey. Well done Sir.
Laughter is proven to be a cure for many mental and even physical illnessess. I'm deeply concerned for Turkey's future as it seems it's going backwards in many ways. The world is moving forward through technology advances, and phones are one medium for educating people the moment we need it. I believe rediscovering the quran may not be the best solution for a free and advancing Turkey. This line to swap with recipe, does this mean that he thinks women should be slaves to their families? This is what it seems to imply to me, fully disagree. This man will ruin a Turkey who was once headed in a secular, free society, but now a modern european Turkey looks to be far far away…
Comments are closed.