Global Gap is a series of five programmes where two people who do the same job, one from the UK and one from another country (for this week, Turkey), have a thought provoking conversation, to compare and contrast their working lives and the issues that arise in their jobs.

A predominately Muslim country, Turkey nevertheless straddles Western and Eastern culture - and the series this week focuses on the religious versus the secular, capturing the differences in attitudes and society between Turkey and UK through conversation and recordings in workplaces.

Episode 1 (of 5): Sports Teachers
Sports teachers Kerry Barber in UK and Sinem Varder in Turkey share their experiences. Birmingham's Golden Hillock School has a large number of Muslim pupils, many of whom wear the hijab, and sports lessons with girls and boys segregated - while Sinem's Turkish school has mixed classes and forbids girls to cover their head. Sinem sees this as liberating for women and is concerned that a proposal by the current Turkish Government to re-introduce the wearing of the hijab in schools is a backward step.

Kerry and Sinem discuss these perhaps unexpected contrasts in their schools, as well as their own international success in male dominated sports - rugby for Kerry and basketball for Sinem.

Reporter: Sara Parker
Producer: Laura Parfitt
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4. Show less