UNU-GEST fellows continue teaching Icelandic youth about gender inequality in their home countries
Three fellows from the UNU-GEST Diploma Programme visited the upper seconday school Fjölbrautaskólinn við Ármúla on April 27. The students, aged 16 -19, listened carefully to their talk about gender issues in their home countries. Harriet Achieng focused on sex education for youth in Uganda and on whose responsibility it should be. She posed the question if it should be the child‘s right, a parent‘s choice or the state‘s obligation and claims it is a complicated issue since it is a subject considered culturally inappropriate to talk about in Uganda. Marko Matović discussed gender stereotypes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the lack of women‘s envolvement in politics and economic activities. He said that gender equality issues were not on the top of the political agenda but recently noticed some positive social changes such as men getting more involved in gender equality issues. Tereza Vujošević talked about gender inequality in Montenegro such as issues related to gender sensitive language and gendered traditional roles. She discussed for example the fuzz that arose when the mustache, that has historically been connected to masculinity, was used as a symbol to promote the Montenegrin Pride festival and how it challenged patriarchal ideas about masculinity.