Turkish Deputy PM defends speech on social degradation
Arinc’s words about women laughing in public sparked a social media campaign in which scores of women posted pictures of themselves laughing.
31 July 2014
ANKARA
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc has complained about the distortion of a speech he delivered on Monday in which, among other things, he said women should not laugh out loud in public.
When asked to comment on a social media campaign protesting his speech, Arinc said: “What some people understood from my one and a half hours speech was only my sentence that women should not laugh out loud in public.
“What a hideous, ugly, baseless accusation; those who listened to that speech [in entirety] immediately noticed this,” he told reporters in Ankara on Wednesday.
“I felt very happy when I learned that there were some TV channels which broadcast that speech in entirety,” he said.
On the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Arinc gave a speech in his hometown of Bursa, a part of which addressed a perceived social degradation in Turkey.
In the speech, he stressed the importance of chastity in both men and women, and said there were times when women were the symbol of chastity in society.
“A woman should not laugh out loud on the streets. She should not be inviting in her attitudes and protect her chastity,” he said while talking about the debasement the society is suffering.
Arinc’s words about women laughing in public sparked a social media campaign in which scores of women posted pictures of themselves laughing.
“I believe that my comments were true and are widely agreed in society. I stand by my words,” Arinc said on Wednesday.
He also appealed to people’s “conscience” for listening to his speech in its entirety and see whether there is an attempt of any sort of intervention into people’s lives.
“I just wanted to say a few words on the roads to people’s soul. That’s why I wanted to draw attention towards degradation in society,” he said.
