My name is Can. I am a 15-year-old boy from East Turkey and work for the UN's HeforShe group at my school. Before this group was created I knew that in Turkey gender inequality was a real issue and that things needed to change, so when my biology teacher said they'd be creating a group I decided to join.

At first, people judged me because I was a boy who was standing up for women's rights. I think that's wrong because men can fight for women's rights too.

Our group's goal is to provide gender equality in our school and community. We usually make interactive activities. Our first activity was correcting the sexist phrases in our language. We also donated 5 books which were focused on feminism and gender equality to our school library. For Orange the World Day we made an interactive board and wrote a sentence about being against violence against women and wanted them to sign the wall if they supported our statement. On International Solidarity Day we drew a mural on our school’s wall and wrote words about that day in it. We also invited Ilayda Eskitascioglu who is the only Turkish woman representative in UN Women to make a presentation to our high school.

We all believe that some day this fight for gender equality will be over, and we will be proud to have been a part of it.