Equality is about ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents. It is also the belief that no one should have poorer life chances because of the way they were born, where they come from, what they believe, or whether they have a disability.
Sukurgeldi Myradov is a National Gender Youth activist and Focal Point of Youth Center Y-PEER Turkmenistan shares his experience in promoting positive gender practices among young generation.
For him gender equality is the inclusive platform where the ambitions, rights, possibilities and voices of both women and men are equally recognized. People often symbolically associate "equality" with "scales", where both sides are equal, while he thinks of "equality" as of a "giant airplane" which needs to keep balance in order to move steadily upward to the peaks and forward to goals. If one wing of the plane slightly outweighs the other, then the route will completely change and the passengers of the plane will not be able to reach their intended goal. He is happy to highlight 21st century – the epoch of globalization – brings vital educational exchange, thanks to young girls and boys, they can freely access any information including gender equality, which is immensely highlighted and put focus on.
The desire to be the future architect came by sharing his experience and learn from his peers which helped him to overcome any difficulties. He’s lucky to start volunteering at the age of 13 at National Youth Network Y-PEER supported by UNFPA Turkmenistan, where he not only gained an understanding of how to effectively deliver information to young people at sessions, but also learned how to connect his local experience to the international dimension.
“Let it be my teacher at school, my friend whom I have known for a long time or a person whom I just met, in case the person is in charge of creating gender inequality, I personally feel obliged to act to stop this. To prevent gender inequality, I suppose that there are 3 pillars according to which I act: knowledge, action, motivation. People often say that actions speak louder than words. I completely agree! It is vital to encourage youth and everyone to act, to bring life to their ideas on gender equality promotion, and to implement real life actions” he says.
A great aspect that helped him to realize that it was normal to help his mother and sister at home, to do chores and look after kids while his mother is at work was an experience of firstly being introduced to gender equality norms in a youth center Y-PEER. Through interactive and funny activities such as linking genders to professions, which at the end turned to be that professions have no gender, achieved young people like Shukurgeldi gets the core idea of gender equality.
For him a future is a world where we manage to create peace in the minds of men & women.
