Bukele attacks the gender perspective and removes it from public schools in El Salvador

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has attacked the gender perspective and has decided that it should not be included in public education in the Central American country. Bukele has said that he will not allow “those ideologies in schools and colleges” and the Ministry of Education has announced that it will implement the controversial president’s decision. “Confirmed: we have removed all traces of gender ideology from public schools,” the head of the portfolio, José Mauricio Pineda, stated on his social networks, in an action that has aroused criticism from feminist organizations.

Bukele’s decision comes a week following the Electoral Court of El Salvador settled the dispute over the election results and ratified the triumph of the president, who won the election with 84% of the votes. The body also reported that the vote count to assign deputies to the National Assembly has ended, which gives a large majority to Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party, which consolidates it as the main force in the country and will allow it to expand its controversial policies. , which include maintaining the state of emergency imposed more than a year ago. Bukele has enormous support from the population, which he sees as a blank card to implement measures such as those related to the gender perspective.

Minister Pineda has stated that “every use or trace of gender ideology” has been “removed from public schools”, without giving more details regarding the implications of this decision in one of the countries that has one of the rates. of violent deaths of women in the region. Data from UN Women show that in 2019 the rate was 6.48 per 100,000 women. In addition, the organization cites reports from the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic that indicate that in the first half of 2021, 315 women were reported missing, while the 2019 National Sexual Violence Survey reflected that 63% of women nationwide (6 out of 10) expressed having experienced at least one incident of sexual assault. “In general terms, women and girls experience continuous forms of violence and discrimination that are based on the patriarchal system, and that require a comprehensive and integrated approach to contribute to its eradication,” warns UN Women.

The controversial decision of the Salvadoran Government comes following Bukele said during the recent Conservative Political Action Conference that was held in the United States that he considers it “important that the curriculum does not carry this gender ideology and all these things,” and assured that “Parents should be informed and have a say in what their children are going to learn.” Bukele had already expressed his rejection of abortion and same-sex marriage. The president has been the subject of criticism for the change in his positions, since he was part of the FMLN, the former Salvadoran guerrilla converted into a left-wing party.

Salvadoran feminists and activists have also criticized the president’s positions, which they consider violate the rights of women in this small country. “Bukele is a messianic figure, a patriarchal leader, a father president who watches over us and who appears anointed by God,” human rights activist Celia Medrano told this newspaper at the beginning of February, within the framework of the electoral process. “He is a highly conservative man with a very clear tendency to manipulate religion towards the message that women have to be at home. Our role is to combat that narrative,” Medrano said.

Follow all the international information on Facebook y Xor our weekly newsletter.