LOL: Turkish Deputy PM Says Women Shouldn't Laugh Out Loud in Public

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has provoked a bit of a storm over remarks made at a Bayram event yesterday in which he said women should be chaste and modest and — the remark that set off an Internet storm —should not laugh out loud in public.

Quoting the (anti-AKP) Hurriyet Daily News:

“Chastity is so important. It is not only a name. It is an ornament for both women and men. [She] will have chasteness. Man will have it, too. He will not be a womanizer. He will be bound to his wife. He will love his children. [The woman] will know what is haram and not haram. She will not laugh in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness,” Arınç said, adding that people had abandoned their values today.

People needs to discover the Quran once again, Arınç said, adding that there had been a regression on moral grounds.

“Where are our girls, who slightly blush, lower their heads and turn their eyes away when we look at their face, becoming the symbol of chastity?” he said.

He also criticized soap operas and women talking on cellphones.

Unsurprisingly, Turkish social media quickly filled with pictures of women laughing in public (most probably laughing at Arınç).

As they say, LOL. Photo below one of many on Twitter.