Gendarmerie to take gender equality classes

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin (L) and Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin (R) co-signed a protocol for teaching courses on gender issues in gendarmerie. AA photo

Gendarmerie schools are to start teaching courses on gender issues and the prevention of violence toward women, in accordance with a protocol signed yesterday between the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Family and Social Policies.

“This protocol involves revolutionary work. For the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic, subjects regarding women, their rights and the obstacles lying before the education of female children will [be taught] in courses on ‘Human Rights and Citizenship’ in vocational and gendarmerie officer schools,” Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin said.

Citizens performing their military duties in the Gendarmerie forces will also partake in educational programs intended to increase awareness regarding violence toward women and honor killings, as part of the protocol signed between Minister Fatma Şahin and Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin.
“We attach great importance to embracing and approaching [Turkey’s] 74 million people in the same manner, and [the establishment of] an organization that will solve all problems in a wholesome way,” said Minister Fatma Şahin.

Gender equality and the prevention of violence toward women will now enter as new subjects into the curricula of schools operating under the Gendarmerie Command. Authorities will also extend the level of services to help women victimized by violence and train new personnel to this effect, according to reports.

“The introduction of this subject into basic education represents a very important start,” Minister Fatma Şahin said.

Behavior toward women

There are certain dysfunctional occurrences in Turkey with respect to attitudes and behavior toward women, as in most other societies, Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin said.

Fatma Şahin also added there was also significant work underway regarding the initial responses to problems pertaining to teenage marriages and violence toward women. The Ministry of Family and Social Policies has also undertaken a similar initiative with the Turkish police, she said.

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin had earlier said that support from the military and the Religious Affairs Directorate could be instrumental in raising awareness among men to combat mounting violence against women. The minister said she had request

ed a meeting with Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel to discuss how the military could contribute to efforts to stop the rising trend of women falling victim to murder and domestic abuse at the hands of men.

“It is a general gender education project for society,”Şahin said.