Women should not laugh out loud

Turkey, in the recent time, has been going through an interesting ‘Islamic’ phase where more people are turning into ‘practicing’ Muslim. The rise of Turkey’s Islamification coincides with the 2002 landslide victory of the AKP party of Turkey. I remembered that back then some folks blamed corruption, harsh implementation of secularism, lack of religious freedom and the repeat failures to gain entry into the white Christian club (European Union) as the cause of why many Turks were simply fed-up with existing political parties and were even willing to try something new.

The Turkish AKP political party seems to want to represent all Turks using modern democratic principles with progressive policies while at the same time wants to be an ‘Islamic’ party with traditional Islamic ideology and way of life to many of her followers. As expected these two systems don’t really work very well together.

Recently, one of the high ranking politicians from the Islamic party (AKP) had this to say

Bulent Arinc, speaking at a ceremony to mark Eid - celebrating the end of Ramadan- urged Turkish women to abide by a rigorous code - and know what is "haram," or forbidden. "A woman will know what is haram and not haram," he said. "She will not laugh out loud in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness."

Turkey had the most progressive rights for Muslim women vs anywhere else in the world. Turkish women had almost all the rights that a male in her country would have. They were not required to be obedient to their father, grandfather/brothers or husband (the male hierarchy in the family) unless they themselves wish to. They were not restricted from pursuing any career of interest. They were not required to refer to ancient Islamic literatures or read up books written by Mullahs about women rights and proper behavior. They were also not restricted socially in any form (not requiring male companion for traveling or be fully covered from head to toe) or forced to stay away from participating in social arena. So, being born a female didn’t put them at a disadvantaged position. So naturally, after many years of no one telling these women how they should behave or conduct themselves in public, we now have a guy who is trying to reset the clock on feminism and naturally women didn’t like that. So, he’s being ridiculed publicly.

First off, based on most authentic sources, what the guy is saying about how a good Muslim woman should behave (not laughing loudly) is firmly established in the Islamic teaching. The most common (logical) reason provided is that if you laugh to loudly then a pervert will fall in love with you so it’s for your own safety. This regulation is not just single women but also for married women (all women in general).

I don’t really agree with this approach that your life should be entirely focused on what a pervert think about you. You should do what is sensible to you. Besides, laughing is not something you can control or have a good control on. It’s one of the most natural human expressions like sneezing, crying or feeling sad and not everyone is acting out when they display that sort of emotions. And most societies have rules that punish the ‘perverts’ without victimizing the victims.

Islamists generally have a tendency to equate women as Satan’s Weapon of Mass Misguidance. Women have to be covered up properly and strictly and she has to watch her behaviors at all time so she doesn’t become a loose woman whose only mission in life is to orchestrate the downfall of men. You can even find this thinly veiled attack on women in the politician statement.

Now on Internet, everyone is lol, at him and not with him.

His comments were widely ridiculed, with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter ablaze with pictures of women laughing and the hashtag, #direnkahkaha (ignore him - laugh) was born.

The politician dig himself further when he was defending his remark with more derogatory comments … about how women like to have affairs when they have perfectly good husbands at home … obviously it never occurred to this man that there’s also another guy involve here who is perhaps just as much to be blame as the woman. The Islamists don’t see that. They always see everything as a one-sided affair where men are being victimized by women and not the other way around.

Reference

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11005428/Emma-Watson-joins-protest-against-Turkish-politicians-claim-women-should-not-laugh-out-loud.html