Sun 07 July 2019:
“As a female academic, I believe that it is a quite good idea. Turkish women should be more modern, educated and equipped. These women’s universities are a great opportunity for that purpose,” said professor İlkay Erdoğan Orhan, the dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Gazi University.
Speaking to Sabah daily on the matter, Orhan said there are many fields where women are needed the most. “In my opinion, it is very beneficial for women to be experts in these areas,” she noted, adding that across the world, there are various women’s universities.Visiting Japan last week to attend the G20 summit, Erdoğan delivered a speech at a Mukogawa Women’s University where he received an honorary doctorate. During his speech, the president indicated that Turkey will use Japan as an example for the country’s women’s universities and will establish similar ones. He even called on the head of the Board of Higher Education (YÖK) to start such initiatives.
“There were ‘İnaf Schools’ in the Ottoman era. This is a concept that we [Turkey] have had for 700 years,” Avşar said, adding that with the foundation of the republic, many other women-only schools have been established specific to each profession, such as women’s teaching schools and women’s technical schools. “These schools and the women who have been trained in these schools have contributed to the development of the republic and today’s modern intellectual women,” Avşar asserted. Avşar also indicated that it is not fair to interpret the issue as an end to coeducation. “These are the schools that [the founder of the republic Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk gave major significance and marked their stamp on an era,” he said.
