HUNDREDS of Turkish women posted pictures of themselves laughing on Twitter to protest against comments by Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, who has urged women not to laugh in public to “protect moral values.”

Gelda Onur, a lawmaker from the main opposition party Republican People’s Party (CHP) said on Twitter that Arınç’s comments portrayed laughing as a dishonorable act and left women exposed to violence.

Opponents accuse Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s government of ruling in an increasingly authoritarian manner and meddling in people’s private lives, which has long been a source of conflict between the country’s secularists and Erdoğan’s conservative supporters.

One women’s organization said it would file a criminal complaint against the deputy PM.

Arınç, one of the co-founders of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), said: “The woman should have chastity. … She should not laugh in front of everyone and not be inviting in her behavior. She should protect her honor.”

Complaining about “moral corruption” in Turkey, he said: “Chastity is so important. It is not only a name. It is an ornament for both women and men. [She] will have chasteness. Man will have it, too. He will not be a womanizer. He will be bound to his wife. He will love his children.

“[The woman] will know what is haram and not haram. She will not laugh in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness,” Arınç said, adding that people had abandoned their values today.

“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?”

He said some TV series geared toward young people had because teenagers to grow up only as “sex addicts,” accusing those who abuse the excitement of youths with publications on TV, the web, newspapers, or in educational places, especially in universities.

Arınç also complained about high consumption, referring to the number of cars and mobile phones that individuals have.