Türkiye supports societies struggling with gender inequality

FEVZİ KIZILKOYUN – BAKU

Canan Güllü, the president of the Women's Federation of Türkiye, has said at the "Promotion of Women's Rights and Empowerment of Women" meeting that Türkiye can support other countries in gender equality.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the second largest group of states after the United Nations (UN), came together for the first time with the theme of “Promoting Women's Rights and Empowering Women.”

Güllü, who was in Azerbaijan as a guest of the conference, emphasized that the position we are in in terms of equality between women and men in the 100th anniversary of the Republic is very valuable.

"It is our duty to explain the importance of the gains based on cooperation and legal grounds to communities that are far from gender equality, to associations and youth of non-aligned movement members, to state administrators together with civil societies working in the field," she said.

"At this point, I think Türkiye is in a position where it can assume what they call the role of ‘big brother and big sister’ very well. We are ready to do our part both in civil society and in the institutional field," Güllü added.

Leman Yenigün, Turkish Family and Social Services deputy minister, who was invited as a guest to the conference held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, said, "Countries that do not benefit from women's knowledge, skills and experience lag behind in the race for economic and social development. We will continue to encourage women to create added value in all areas of life in order to achieve our social and economic growth and sustainable development goals.”

Officials from Morocco to Nepal, from Zimbabwe to Nicaragua, who struggle for equality between women and men in a wide geography, made presentations at the conference.

Current obstacles to gender equality such as early marriage, equal access to education for girls, women's active participation in economic and social life, protection from violence, women's participation in decision-making mechanisms and support for women's leadership were discussed at the meeting.