Turkey - Presidential elections: Men and Women are not equal saysTurkish PM Erdogan - by Alev Scott

Cartoon of Turkish PM  Recep Tayip Erdogan

Ten days before historic presidential elections in Turkey, the deputy prime minister has brought to the country’s attention the pressing matter of female modesty. “A woman must not act in an alluring manner but must preserve her purity,” said Bülent Arınç, co-founder of the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and close ally of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is widely expected to win the election on 10 August.

“A woman must not laugh in public … Where are our girls, who blush delicately, lower their heads and turn their eyes away when we look at their faces, our symbols of chastity?”

Arınç was speaking on the subject of Turkey’s “moral collapse” at a meeting to mark the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr. His advice became, ironically, the source of much mirth on social media and inspired a flurry of photographs of Turkish women laughing, perhaps through gritted teeth.

While Arınç took care to provide advice for men too – “A man will not be a womanizer” – his fixation on the behaviour of Turkish women enraged both women and men who are already resentful of the AKP’s "moralistic" hectoring.

However, despite some outrage, many Turkish voters will applaud Arınç as the voice of reason, his sermon as the tonic Turkey needs. He represents a party that employs Islamic and quasi-Islamic ideals, ever more explicitly and insistently, to appeal to its core base of support among conservative Turks.

The timing of the speech was no coincidence. On 10 August, Turks will for the first time vote directly for their president and the election is effectively a popularity test for Erdoğan, who has been in power for 11 years and is seeking to continue as a self-styled “active” head of state. Erdoğan has long claimed to represent the pious working man of Turkey and has overseen landslide victories for his party in three consecutive general elections.

He knows perfectly well that he has alienated the more liberal and secular of Turkish voters with his religious rhetoric but this is now immaterial. The AKP’s aggressive policy of polarisation encourages deep commitment to Erdoğan and creates a stark division within the Turkish population. Almost 50% of Turks vote for Erdoğan: the formula works.

The prime minister  Recep Tayip Erdogan  has made no secret of where he stands in the debate on women’s role in Turkish society: in 2010, he declared that “women and men are not equal. They only complement each other”. During his election campaign 10 days ago, he visited a dormitory of female university students to warn them not to “hang around” but find husbands as soon as possible.

Read more: Why Turkish women will be laughing all the way to the election | Alev Scott | Comment is free | theguardian.com