Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has renewed his fight against smoking and alcohol consumption, calling on people to exert “neighborhood pressure” on those who smoke and consume alcohol.
“Serious neighborhood pressure is needed against smokers and alcohol drinkers. We should altogether establish a social environment in which smokers are chided and drug addicts are treated like ill,” Erdoğan said during a speech on Wednesday night.
“Neighborhood pressure” (peer pressure) is a term coined by internationally renowned sociologist Şerif Mardin to describe the pressure exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change their attitude, behavior and/or morals. It was launched during the process of drafting of a new constitution and the possibility of this new text abolishing the headscarf ban at Turkish universities, in 2007. Such a possibility sparked an outcry among supporters of the headscarf ban, who claimed that allowing headscarves at universities would be the beginning of a slow but inexorable move toward forcing all women to cover their heads in public — due to neighborhood pressure.
Erdoğan also voiced concern over the possibility of an increase in alcohol consumption across Turkey. “All these bad habits are like hulks of a disastrous chain which feed each other,” he said.
Erdoğan, who has long been fighting against smoking and alcohol consumption, vowed during his presidential campaign a struggle against alcohol, tobacco and drugs with his “full power.”.. see more
souorce: todayszaman
Tags: drinkers, Erdo?an, Politics, smokers
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