Turkey’s Ministry of National Education (MEB) prepared a manual book that aimed to teach children about forbidden intimacy [mahrem in Turkish] in Religious Culture and Morale Knowledge class.
According to Taraf newspaper, the manual included a visual material that depicted concepts like “the privacies of men”, “the privacies of women” , blood relation, milk bond and marriage. The images was aimed to guide teachers in classes.
The List
The manual’s image included a list of people that are considered as forbidden to have an intimate contact around the drawings of men and women.
The forbidden people of a man were listed as follows: “daughters of my milk sibling, my milk sister, milk mother, bride, step daughter, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, step mother, daughters of my grandchild, daughters of my brother and sister, my daughter, sister, mother, aunt and grandmother.”
The forbidden people of a woman were listed as follows: “sons of my milk sibling, my milk brother, milk father, groom, step son, brother-in-law, father-in-law, step father, sons of my grandchild, my grandson, the sons of my brother and sister, my son, brother, uncle, father of my father and father of my mother.”
Attention to Clothing
A note under an image wrote the following: “A muslim person should be careful about their clothing and attitudes among people out of their privacies, should behave according to the rules of Islam without causing any sedition.”
The Guide!
Entitled “The guide for developing materials in religion education”, the booklet included dozens of images that teachers can benefit during the teaching of class.
It is stated the booklet was prepared for the purpose of encouraging the teachers to prepare education material in the field of religion education and helping the teachers wanting to use their own materials. (YY/MEV/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
