Women should not laugh in public. So said Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc in a speech on Monday about "moral corruption" in Turkey. "Chastity is so important," he said. "She will not laugh in public."
His comments have prompted a big backlash from women on social media in Turkey, with thousands posting photos of themselves laughing and smiling on Twitter and Instagram. There have been more than 300,000 tweets using the term "kahkaha" - the Turkish word for "laughter" - and on the hashtags "Resist Laughter" (#direnkahkaha) and "Resist Woman" (#direnkadin).
Many suggested the government should focus on issues like rape, domestic violence and the marriage of girls at a young age - rather than women laughing in public.
Remember when that coup was attempted against Boris Yeltsin? Faxes and photocopiers sent the word out, and thousands of people swarmed into the streets, and, poof, coup attempt over. Clarence Page wrote this about that moment in history:
Workers of the world, meet the Information Age. The use of technology
once limited to heads of state but now easily available to any kid with a few hundred bucks to shell out at the local Radio Shack is symbolic of the democratizing impact technology and competitive markets (which drive prices down) have made on the lives of ordinary people in the new global economy.
Information is power. The Information Age is hostile to dictatorship.
And that was before Twitter, Facebook and the whole "social media" concept. Thug dictators have less and less ability to control the flow of information, making a "1984" less and less likely.
