School principal define gender-based segregation at school

A vice principal at a secondary school in Tekirdağ district of Turkey set up a new regulation based on an Islamic segregation of male and female students at the school canteen
Tuesday, 16 January 2018 23:11

In Tekirdağ province of Turkey, a vice principal of a secondary school established an Islamic school rule, necessitating that male and female students shall get into separate queues at the school canteen, local media reported on January 16.

The scandalous regulation was revealed when some parents took their children to the school for an exam the previous weekend. The parents protested the vice principal Metin Demirbağ and the regulation he established, and questioned whether the district directorate of national education is aware of that. The parents also reminded that the vice principal is notorious for his sexist remarks at a school he previously worked. Local media had reported that Metin Demirbağ warned female students "not to wear makeup and be flirtatious or else they may end up like Özgecan", a female university student who was raped and then murdered while going to the university campus in 2015. Her murder stirred mass protests around Turkey.

FEMALE-MALE SEGREGATION IN PUBLIC SPACES IS UNACCEPTABLE

Istanbul Technical University in Turkey also set up a new regulation at the beginning of the new semester in January, separating the swimming sessions according to gender.

The Union of Education and Science Workers (Eğitim-Sen) criticised the regulation in a statement they released on January 16. The union stated that male and female segregation in public spaces is unacceptable, since public life cannot be designed according to Islamic principles. The union questioned how the university administration would act if students are to demand the separate education at the campus, or to attend the courses of faculty members according to their gender. The union demanded that this regulation to be ended immediately.