Ban Preventing Teachers from Wearing High-Heels on Parliamentary Agenda

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The ban of wearing high-heeled shoes which was imposed on teachers by the Director of Akşemsettin Primary School in the district of Sincan in Ankara has been brought into parliamentary agenda by Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP Oya Ersoy.

Submitting a parliamentary question to be responded by Minister of National Education Ziya Selçuk, Ersoy has made the following remarks:

"As stated by the teachers, the school director first handed them a document having the characteristics of a fatwa and claiming that it is not religiously permissible for women to wear high-heels, then, he sent a warning letter to the teachers who wear high-heeled shoes at school.

"In the document handed to teachers by the director and carrying the title 'Is it religiously permissible for women to wear high-heeled shoes?', it was written, 'They shall not move their legs, show their feet or attract attention by walking flirtatiously as this attitude turns men on.'

"A school director giving a fatwa to teachers by using sexist and reactionary statements is yet another indication that education needs to be reorganized in a free, scientific, democratic and secular understanding."

"Is there an administrative investigation against him?"

In her parliamentary question, Ersoy has directed a series of questions to Minister of Education Selçuk including:

• Is there an administrative investigation conducted by your ministry against Mehmet İpek, the Director of the Akşemsettin Primary School?
• Has an administrative investigation been launched against the school director, who openly discriminated against the teachers and violated the constitutional principles of equality and secularism?
• Is it true that the Director of the Akşemsettin Primary School used to be an imam. If this information is true, then, is your ministry planning to reconsider its criteria for appointing school directors? How can a person who is not a teacher work as a director of a school?
• Will this person continue working as the director of the school?
• How are the directors inspected by your ministry? (AÖ/SD)