Mariela Castro

Havana, December 28 (RHC)-- The director of the National Center for Sex Education in Cuba (CENESEX), Mariela Castro, defended on Tuesday the construction of a society where respectful coexistence prevails, and there is no room for domination relations.

"CENESEX educates for love and respectful coexistence, not for relations of domination many times exercised through violence," Castro stressed while speaking at the ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the founding of that institution.

We promote an education based on humanist and democratic principles that inspire the emancipation paradigm of socialism, Castro said at the Memorial of the Denunciation located in Havana.

It is one of the bold institutions of the Revolution, and it could not be otherwise, said Castro, who was also awarded the Carlos J. Finlay Order.

The Order is the highest award conferred by the Republic of Cuba to Cuban and foreign citizens to recognize valuable contributions to the development of natural or social sciences, scientific or research activities. 

Integral education on sexuality -she explained- provides valuable tools for understanding the human being as a subject of rights.

The revolutionary process weakened the mechanisms of domination and discrimination present in social relations and resisted the pressures for change, she argued.

We must help to become aware that patriarchy does not disappear de facto, nor symbolically as a result of theory, nor the efforts of the transforming practice of socialism, nor convincing speeches and policies, he explained.

It is necessary, Mariela Castro said, to disarticulate the system of patriarchal domination through political dialogue, permanent education, and communicational strategies.

In this way, it will be possible to give way to a new project of society based on solidarity, equality, justice, and social equity, she said.