School counsellor sacked for promoting Christian views on marriage

Country: United Kingdom

Date of incident: January 16, 2025


Gozen Soydag, who was sacked from a Catholic school in February 2023 for publicly promoting traditional Christian beliefs on marriage, has received news that the court has rejected all her claims. Ms Soydag will appeal the decision as she feels she is being discriminated against because of her faith.

In February 2023, school counsellor Gozen Soydag was sacked from St Anne's Catholic High School for expressing her Christian beliefs about marriage on social media. Next to her job as a school counsellor, Ms Soydag is a social media influencer with more than 30,000 followers across all her accounts. Despite the school's insistence that it operates 'in accordance with Canon Law and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church', and Ms Soydag's own description of herself as a 'passionate woman of faith', the dismissal came after the headteacher felt that she could not have "someone with that mindset working in the school".

The incident came after concerns were raised about some social media posts that referred to traditional views on the role of a woman in marriage, which were seen by some as mysoginistic. Ms. Soydag said the controversial posts were meant "to create discussion, not to say this is the ideal life". She added that her social media posts were a direct expression of her beliefs: "I have studied the scriptures about how to be a wife and the purpose of a wife," she says. "I believe, in line with the scriptures, that a wife is a helper to achieve the vision of a family, but that it will look different in every family. I'm all about empowering women to make their own choices and to know themselves - because if you know who you are or what your purpose is, then you'll know who to align yourself with in marriage, if that's what you want."

In an interview with The Telegraph, the school counsellor said: "There's so much talk about diversity in the workplace, yet in this instance, my beliefs and who I am as a Christian were completely excluded… I was persecuted". She told the Daily Mail newspaper that she felt she had been "cut short because Christianity has become a dirty word" and that "it seems the world we live in right now is completely rejecting all things Christian".

Ms. Soydag is suing St Anne's Catholic High School for Girls for unfair dismissal, harassment, discrimination and breaches of her human rights because of her Christian beliefs. However, the Watford Employment Tribunal dismissed all her claims, saying that her public statements "only celebrated the nuclear family, which could make other students from different backgrounds feel devalued.”

The counsellor has now said she will appeal against the decision.

Source: telegraph.co.ukdailymail.co.ukchristianconcern.com

Image: Christian Concern