Education minister informed on Thursday that secretary of state Vasile Salaru resigned after making controversial statements several days ago regarding how girls should present themselves in society: “to walk nicely, the chest ahead, the back behind, so that all boys should black out.”
While in Deva on Tuesday, the secretary of state within the Education Ministry stated in a press conference that the schools should introduce classes of good conduct for schoolgirls so that they could learn “how to walk straight and to be good hosts, and how to serve tea”. Salaru argued these guidance lessons would be useful “for an easier integration into society, through attitude and posture.”
“Our pupils don’t know how to walk on the street. I would like to see a schoolgirl from the 11th or 12th grade walking nicely on heels, dancing waltz or tango, to be good hosts. I think it’s a side of the Romanian education that has been totally neglected and which could remind, and I hope you won’t smile, of the old boarding school education,” Salaru was saying, as quoted by “Glasul Hunedoarei” paper.
Asked if it wouldn’t be more useful for the pupils to learn traffic rules or first aid classes, the secretary of state answered: “Nobody says they shouldn’t be taught (…) I was just saying that some other lessons should be taught, besides those ones.”
“I apologize if I didn’t make myself clear, but I consider that a boy, when he takes a girl’s arm, at least this is the way things are going on in Moldavia where I come from, is less interested if the girl knows traffic rules, but if she knows how to walk, like a lady. In one word, the chest ahead, the back behind, so that all boys should black out,” Salaru advised the girls.
He has served as secretary of state since January this year. Salaru is co-president of ALDE Iasi and he also runs for the Iasi City Hall.
In retort, the resigning secretary of state said he stepped aside in order to not compromise “either the educational system or his party, ALDE”, also pointing out the journalist from “Glasul Hunedoarei” distorted his statement. “A journalist from a local paper in Hunedoara tendentiously distorted one of my views about the nonformal education that should weigh more during the school counselling classes. Those were not my words and I haven’t been granted the right to answer either. The journalist used expressions that haven’t ever belonged to me, but which caused me serious prejudices,” Salaru replied.
He argued that other local papers such as “Ziarul hunedorean” or Hunedoara TV station (where the press conference has been recorded) have corectly reported the information. “Pawkily, I think that a straight back, bellied chest and the look ahead are counting a lot. The optimism expressed by a young man helps him see life differently”, the official said this was the real statement and that the journalist revised it and misinterpreted it, “assigning unspoke words to him.