‘Don’t laugh out loud,’ Turkey’s deputy PM urges women

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s deputy sparked controversy this week after he said women should refrain from laughing out loud, AFP reported Tuesday.

Bulent Arinç, who is also the spokesperson for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said on Monday women needed to be “morally upright” and “not laugh out loud in public,” the news agency quoted him as saying.

He said women should not “laugh out loud in front of everyone” and needed to “remain descent” at all times. The conservative Turkish politician also said a woman needed to be able to discriminate effectively between what was decent and what was not.

Arinç’s comments sparked controversy on the Internet.

“I can only burst into laughter after this lesson of morality,” Twitter user Hilan Inan sarcastically wrote in Turkish on her account, according to the agency.

“Stop giving us speeches in morality, instead, tell us about the money you’ve stolen,” btürkmen, another user wrote in Turkish, clearly referring to the corruption scandal Erdogan and his entourage have been facing since December.

In 2013, protests erupted in Turkey against Erdogan and his AK Party, which were seen as imposing conservative Islamic reforms on the predominantly Muslim, but constitutionally secular, nation.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, is seen as a clear favorite in next month’s presidential election.