The Head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women of the Government Delegation in Melilla, Laura Segura, has highlighted the initiative of ‘Claustros que Coeducan’, which aims to consolidate an educational culture that prevents gender inequalities and acts as a barrier against the different forms of violence suffered by women, from childhood to adulthood.
The head of the Unit, in an interview given to Onda Cero, referred to this training that has been carried out in collaboration with the Provincial Directorate of Education to train teachers in the city’s educational centers in the field of equality and against male violence. “Coeducation is not an option. It is law. And therefore it is a legal obligation for teachers to be trained on an equal footing and to educate from that perspective”, he defended.
Segura recalled that the joint work between the Unit and the Provincial Directorate of Education began in 2018 with the creation of the Schools for Equality network, an initiative that, over time, has been consolidated as an identity sign of the Melilla educational model. “At that time, I was in the Provincial Directorate and the current Director – Elena Fernández Treviño – was in the Unit. Together we promote a network in which all the educational centers of the city are involved, especially supporting those responsible for equality who threw the car from the beginning,” he recalled.
As he explained, the network has been growing through the impulse of teaching teams that have understood the need to convert schools into equal and safe spaces, not only from theory, but from everyday practice.
In this context, ‘Claustros que Coeducan’ was born, a specific training aimed at the faculty of 12 centers, divided into two shifts to facilitate participation. The program, launched in June, will be completed in September and is part of a long-term strategy that will continue the next course with more centers involved.
Rigorous training for a key role
The content of the training has been designed with a multidisciplinary approach. One of the blocks has been taught by Miguel Lorente Acosta, a former government delegate against gender violence and recognized expert at European level. The other, in charge of Laura Segura herself, focused on the specific reality of Melilla, addressing both the social context and the pedagogical practices necessary for a transformative education.
“Teachers have a key role. Sometimes they are not fully aware of the power they have or of who they feel every day in their classrooms,” said Segura. “There are boys and girls who live in violence at home, girls who will be victims in their relationships, and also boys who can reproduce these patterns as future aggressors. That’s why prevention should start there,” he explained.
During the radio interview, Segura defended the need to include afftive-sexual education in schools, especially when many children “receive the message that is reaching them through pornography”.
“Access to pornography is occurring at younger and younger ages, around the age of eight. And while 90% of children consume it, 90% of families think their children have never seen it. That gap is alarming,” he said. As she has explained, this type of content not only objectifies women, but often shows extreme violence and real situations of sexual exploitation.
“Society must understand that what minors see is not fiction: it is violence. Many women who appear today in pornographic content have been victims of trafficking or prostitution, and have transited to these platforms from exploitation,” he warned.
Segura has insisted on the importance of teachers being properly trained so as not to convey erroneous or counterproductive messages. “Sex education cannot be improvised. It must be rigorous, conscientious, and have the ability to counteract the speeches of pornography, social networks, and toxic referents that circulate unchecked,” he said.
In addition, she has called attention to the role that gender stereotypes play in the configuration of the identity of boys and girls, noting that it is necessary to “banish stereotypes, to educate equals, to balance the gender balances, to enhance those aspects in which girls, within those gender backpacks, do not allow them to be who they want to be”.
Also, she added, “trying to balance the excesses in those boys’ gender backpacks: Excess in risk, excess in leadership… to be able to counteract those inequalities that are then perpetuated and that, in their most extreme degree, lead to gender violence”, while also seeking to “prevent violence in itself, both gender violence in the context of the couple, but also sexual violence”.
The Head of the Unit stressed that the work against male violence cannot be limited to one dimension: it must combine protection, awareness, training and public presence. “From the Government Delegation we work every day in coordination with Security Forces and Bodies, the judiciary, the Bar Association and lawyers. But we also know that we have to be in the media, in schools, in society,” he said.
Segura has argued that making visible all the violence suffered by women - beyond violence in pairs - is key to dismantling the male chauvinistic structure that generates them. “We are not talking about one more violence, we are talking about a structural, cultural violence that is normalized as a society and that is often not seen. And that is our main battle: to make it visible and eradicate it from all possible fronts.” He has underlined.