Althouse: "Chastity is so important. It is not only a name. It is an ornament for both women and men."

July 29, 2014

"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.... 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?... 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...."

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç lectures the people of Turkey about moral corruption.

The part about women not laughing in public is getting all the attention here in the West, where it's easy to laugh at him, loudly and publicly.

18 comments:

Michael K said...: This was the common wisdom in Classical Greece where a woman's virtue was described as "never having her name mentioned in public."

Homosexuality followed as it does in most Moslem countries. British soldiers complained about Afghan boys with lipstick and makeup.; 7/29/14, 7:40 PM
Revenant said...: Things like this help me keep a "things aren't so bad here" mindset with regard to our own social conservatives.; 7/29/14, 7:41 PM
L Day said...: In America if you don't put out on the first date you're a social conservative.; 7/29/14, 8:36 PM
bobby said...: Gotta admit, I DO like the "put down the damn phone!" fatwa.; 7/29/14, 9:02 PM
Paco Wové said...: Amusing, but disturbing to see this sort of thing in Turkey, which seems to be sliding backwards into the Middle Eastern morass, just a bit more slowly than most other states in the region.; 7/29/14, 9:26 PM
Balfegor said...: 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?...

One might as well ask where now the horse and the rider, where is the horn that was blowing?

Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?

But in all honesty, while I sometimes find this demure coquetry quite alluring, it often comes paired with other behaviours I find maddening. Korean aegyo is just disgusting. 징그럽다!; 7/29/14, 10:30 PM
n.n said...: It could be worse, they could be selectively normalizing their pet behaviors.

How many children does Turkey abort every year? Perhaps they have a dearth of toilets or inadequate plumbing to flush the clump of cells.

While their leftward progress is a concern, they are not creating moral hazards at the same rate as libertines.; 7/29/14, 10:31 PM
William said...: The OK Cupid website fixed him up with Betty Dodden. It was a traumatic experience that soured him on women.; 7/29/14, 10:40 PM
traditionalguy said...: Virtue is a social construct. And good rulers use it because it works.; 7/29/14, 10:57 PM
rcommal said...: God almighty, the drek starts shooting out from commenter #1.

Yes, it has come to this.; 7/29/14, 11:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Just like the concept of "muslim marriage" has nothing to do with "christian marriage", the concept of "muslim chastity" has nothing to do with "christian chastity". Or perhaps I should say, it has only that much to do with it as a perversion of it.

"Things like this help me keep a "things aren't so bad here" mindset with regard to our own social conservatives"
I follow blogs of catholic (mainly) homeschoolers. I never noticed that they treated their daughters as chattel. Strange that. Either they must lie, or possibly, you must be a bigot.; 7/30/14, 1:10 AM
Anonymous said...: Via ace;
"Aric (acting head of government) is only limiting laughter, not banning it. They may laugh as lustily as they want to in private, but may not laugh loudly in public."

So no more Charlie Chaplin for women.; 7/30/14, 1:52 AM
rhhardin said...: Honest, adj, 3. [of women], Chaste.; 7/30/14, 5:40 AM
Anonymous said...: Balfegor: But in all honesty, while I sometimes find this demure coquetry quite alluring, it often comes paired with other behaviours I find maddening. Korean aegyo is just disgusting. 징그럽다!

Def #2 at that link was pretty funny.

Too bad females using "incredibly annoying baby-talk voices" doesn't seem to be limited to Korean girls employing aegyo, though. There seems to be a rash of gratingly high-pitched, childish voices everywhere these days, attached to people (not just women, God help us!) either doing serious, adult things (which sounds ridiculous), or just being obliviously, obnoxiously loud. I hope the annoying Korean girls are at least soft-spoken. (When they're not squealing like stepped-on mice, that is.); 7/30/14, 7:32 AM
Peter said...: "Amusing, but disturbing to see this sort of thing in Turkey, which seems to be sliding backwards into the Middle Eastern morass, just a bit more slowly than most other states in the region."

Turkey became a secular state because Ataturk and many other Turks perceived the West as the Strong Horse.

But that was almost a century ago. Perceptions have changed.; 7/30/14, 8:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Hard to take seriously from a representative of a nation that one hundred years ago took pride in stuffing its harems with slaves from Eastern Europe.; 7/30/14, 8:41 AM
W.B. Picklesworth said...: In reading only the excerpted portion I don't find it particularly shocking or offensive. It's certainly different than 21st century America. But are we able to reflect on how odd we are? Isn't it at least possible that WE are the weird and offensive ones? At the very least it's worth real thought, not just a guffaw.; 7/30/14, 9:51 PM
Circle said...: I was at the bar of a restaurant in Cambridge MA last night seated next to two women who were laughing their heads off, slapping their thighs etc. I must say it seemed very un-lady-like to me.; 7/31/14, 5:01 AM