Women in Turkey are laughing in public, after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc stated that women laughing out loud in public is 'immoral'.
Women in Turkey are laughing in public, after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc stated that women laughing out loud in public is 'immoral'.Twitter

Turkish women have reacted with defiance after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc stated that women laughing out loud in public was "immoral".

Bulent, in his Eid al-Fitr address, had demanded that Turkish women should stop laughing out loud in public and should also give up talking incessantly on mobile phones.

The Deputy PM also said in his speech that women in the country have lost their sense of chastity, local newspaper Hurriyet Daily reported.

"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?" the leader stated.

And women in Turkey have now taken to social media platforms to express their defiance against the dictate of the conservative politician.

Many have started posting photos of themselves laughing in public, under the hashtag #direnkahkaha, which basically means 'resist and laugh'.

The country's main opposition party's leader Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu also came out in support of the women.

"Our country needs women's and everyone's laughter more than anything," Ihsanoglu tweeted. 

The comments of the Deputy PM has once again raised suspicion that the country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads a conservative political party, wants to convert Turkey into an Islamic state, Global Post reported.

Since the election of Erdogan, the country has slowly been adopting strict Islamic practices.

Earlier in April, a Turkish court had convicted pianist and composer Fazil Say on blasphemy charges over a series of tweets he had posted, The Guardian reported. The musician was eventually given a suspended 10-month jail term. The verdict was "a sad one for Turkey", the pianist had said, while denying the charges against him.  

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