28 girls who stay at the dormitory of an elementary boarding school in a village of the eastern Turkish city of Elazig, who walk 4 km each way every day to go to high school in the nearest town, wrote to the regional education director to request bus service. When the students received no response to their written application, they requested a meeting with the director. During the face to face meeting with the director the girls explained how difficult it was for them to walk this distance every day and how they were going hungry too.
Reportedly the Education Director Yasef Kaya told the girls, “You are not obliged to study in high school. You can study if you have the means; otherwise go and get married”.
Source: Milliyet, Turkey, January 9, 2008
