Twitter in Turkey broke into a collective grin on Wednesday as hundreds of women posted pictures of themselves laughing.
They weren't just happy. They were smiling in defiance of the deputy prime minister, Bülent Arinç, who in a speech to mark Eid al-Fitr on Monday said women should not laugh in public.
[A COMMENT] Probably true that Turkish women under AKP rule don't have much to laugh about from under their govt-pressure-forced headscarves.
[ANOTHER] "In 2012, when the government tried to massively curb the right to abortion, Ankara mayor Melih Gökcek said on public television: "'Why should the child die if the mother is raped? The mother should die instead.'" Yeah, because it surely was her fault. That remark is truly horrible and reveals his mind.
[ANOTHER] I'm glad women - and men - in Turkey still have the freedom to laugh at him. I wonder how long that will continue if Turkey descends into yet another chaotic and repressive Islamic state? It certainly sounds like that process is already underway. [The Guardian] Read more
