A school counselor was fired from her job at an all-girls’ school after sharing social media content that encouraged women to “obey” their husbands. Gozen Soydag, 37, started working at St. Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls in Enfield, London, in 2022. By February 2023, she was dismissed. She’s now sued St. Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls, accusing the school of breach of contract and religious discrimination.
One post in particular garnered a lot of negative attention. Gozen shares content via two separate Instagram accounts: Lady Gozen and Wife In The Waiting Academy. In its Instagram bio, Wife In The Waiting Academy is described as “a God centred ministry that encourages, empowers and equips women, who desire to be married, to heal & position in purpose.”
In February 2023, she shared a controversial post on both accounts. The post circulated around the school, and Jo Sanders, the associate headteacher at St. Anne’s, was concerned about the message it was sending to students, The Telegraph reported.
The video showed another woman talking about submitting to her husband. In the video, the woman said “my husband is my boss.”
“If he tells me ‘you can’t go out with your friends today’, I’m not going to go out with my friends,” the woman in the video stated. “If he says, ‘hey, go wash this dish for me’, I’m going to go and wash the dish for him. I chose this man to be the king of my life and yes, I agree with everything he says.”
In her caption, Gozen reflected on what the video meant to her. She wrote that some people might watch the video and “think that this woman is a slave or maid to her husband.” She, however, perceived it differently. “What I see is a powerful woman who chooses to honor a man that loves her and a man who she is willing to follow the leading of wherever and whatever he asks her,” she wrote.
The school asked Gozen to delete the video.
According to The Telegraph, the school requested that Gozen either delete the video or make it private. To the associate headteacher, the controversial content “was in direct contrast to what we teach our girls,” per the publication.
Additionally, she added that “there was a risk that promoting female submission to men, purely because of gender, regardless of whether it was in marriage only, risked undermining the teaching we try to instill.”
The counselor has defended her posts.
In a February 3, Instagram post, Gozen wrote about how many people seem to be “misunderstanding” her. She said she is “all about empowering both men and women.”
“I have been called misogynistic, someone who supports women being abused, that I think it’s okay for women to be suppressed and not given a voice,” she wrote. “The crazy part is THAT is exactly what’s being done to me. My voice is trying to be shut down because I speak on the beauty and (honor) of a women choosing to be a wife, or at least in my case, having the desire to be a wife.”
She explained her views in more detail when speaking to The Daily Mail. “I studied scriptures about how to be a wife, and the purpose of a wife,” she told the publication. “I believe in line with scripture that a wife is a helper to achieve the vision of a family, but that this will look different in every family.”
She added that she is “all about empowering women to make their own choices and to know themselves – because when you know who you are or your purpose, then you’ll know who to align with in marriage, if that’s what you want.”
Students and parents reportedly complained about Gozen’s social media posts.
Reflecting on her job at the school, Gozen said she had “good relationships” with the students she worked with. “I would come into my office and find a little note saying, ‘You’re the best, thank you,'” she told the Daily Mail. But when the controversial video she shared began circulating around the school, some parents and students reportedly complained, The Telegraph reported.
Judge Sarah Matthews said Gozen’s social media content seemed to “condone an abusive and coercive relationship,” according to the news outlet. She added that Gozen appeared to have “a concerning lack of awareness” about how that kind of messaging might affect young girls.
