Women should not laugh out loud in public or speak of trivial matters on the phone, according to Turkish deputy prime minister, Bulent Arınc.
Mr Arınc urged men and women to remember the importance of chastity during an Eid al-Fitr meeting on Monday in Bursa, west Turkey, and to have an acute awareness of shame.
He attacked television programmes aimed at young people which encouraged them to become "sex addicts" to an audience which included a majority of men.
There is a moral regression happening within the country, he said, and called on citizens to rediscover the Koran, the holy book of Islam.
“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.
“A woman will know what is haram and not haram. She will not laugh out loud in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness,” Mr Arınc said.
But Mr Arınc was aware of the controversy he might cause and said: 'When someone says these things, they say, 'what language is this man speaking?'"
During the speech given to celebrate the end of Ramadan – during which Muslims fast for a month – Mr Arınc criticised the conversations women have on their mobile phones.
“Women give each other meal recipes while speaking on the mobile phone. ‘What else is going on?’ ‘What happened to Ayşe’s daughter?’ ‘When is the wedding?’ Talk about this face to face,” he said.
Reacting to his comments, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who is the main opposition candidate against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey needed more laughter.
Mr İhsanoğlu said (translated): “Our country needs women’s and everyone’s laughter more than anything.”
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