Men cooking challenge in Juba. (Awan Moses/Eye Radio).

The Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare has encouraged men to cook at home, adding that cooking is not a gender role but a skill that everybody must have.

Ayaa Benjamin Warille was speaking during a cooking challenge in which 30 men including celebrities and influential figures participated.

The event was organized by government and non-governmental organizations to encourage men to fight the stigma around male cooking.

Minister Ayaa said for South Sudan to attain gender equality, South Sudanese men must be engaged from the domestic level.

Addressing the event, she said cooking is a skill that everyone should learn since eating is for everyone.

“Cooking is the assigned role that we as a society assigned to girls or women but it is a skill that men can also participate in, so it is important for us to have gender equality,” Ayaa said.

“Some of these assigned roles which are used against girls and women can actually be used to create equality instead of inequality.”

“Instead of suppressing or violating women using these assigned roles, we can actually use them positively to send positive messages that Look here we are equally in this, and everyone can do it.”

On Friday, the National Ministry of Gender and other partners launched the cooking challenge referred to as Rujal Bi Akdar, which translated as “Men can.”

The Rujal Bi Akdar cooking challenge was an opportunity to discuss the impacts of social norms on women and girls and how these can be transformed for positive change.

Dozens of participants in Juba cooked a variety of local and foreign dishes to showcase their cooking talents.

One of the men who took part in the cooking challenge is Wokil Jes Commando, a popular comedian in Juba.

“I am a comedian but today, I will be cooking for my sisters and my mothers around and also my brothers and this is to show that men can also cook,” Wokil told Eye Radio.

Another participant said: “I am preparing as you guys can see is a local meal call in a local language Akok, Walwal, or sometimes it can be called Ayub.”

“I am Gift Godfry Moju commonly known as Gifted Bless and today I am preparing Dugbo one of the delicious from Yei. Most of the people know it as Dugbo or welewele so that is what I am preparing.”

“This is Woodman trust me it is not today simple and just a day where people come and they just talk but this is a reality and this is not my first-day cooking. If you go to my house, you will see even source pans, everything in the house.”