Response to interpellation 2023/24:699 on school staff who uphold honor norms
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L emphasizes that honor-related violence is a serious violation of human rights and that the school should be a safe place where the child's rights are prioritized 1. L argues that the government prioritizes countering oppression through increased funds and mandates to Skolverket 1. L believes that staff who deliberately participate in honor norms should be evaluated for their continued employment 2. L shares the view of a previous culture relativization in Sweden 3 and emphasizes that staff have an absolute obligation to report honor-based oppression and promote human rights 3 4. SD argues that honor-based oppression is a consequence of mass immigration 5. SD wants a general veil ban for children. SD believes that multiculturalism must be rejected to protect individuals' rights. SD argues that staff at preschools must have the knowledge to counter honor-related violence.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! [The member] has asked the Minister for Equality and the Deputy Minister for Employment on in what way the Minister and the Government intend to prevent school staff from continuing to contribute to the oppression of honor. The work within the Government is so distributed that it is I, as the Minister for Education, who answer the interpellation.
Let me begin by stating that honor-related violence and oppression constitute a very serious violation of people's fundamental freedoms and rights. There should be no place whatsoever for honor-related violence and oppression in our society, nor in preschool and school.
Education in the entire school system shall convey and anchor respect for human rights and the fundamental democratic values on which Swedish society rests. Everyone who works within preschool and school shall promote respect for the inviolability of human life, the individual's freedom and privacy, the equal value of all people, equality between women and men, and solidarity between people.
For children and young people living in a context of honor, preschool and school can be the only place where they can be themselves and contact adults to receive support and help. It is therefore of the utmost importance that preschool and school can constitute this safe place and respond to these needs.
Honor-related violence and oppression or other violations against children and students due to gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity shall not occur in the school system. All staff shall have the knowledge and power to be able to act when needed. Preschool and school staff shall not have to hesitate to report their suspicion that a child is being harmed, and they shall be able to feel strong support from society and the management. Everyone shall be able to feel secure in always putting the child's rights first.
It is a priority for me and the government to counter honor-related violence and oppression. Already in June 2023, the government decided to allocate additional funds to the Swedish National Agency for Education's mandate regarding strengthened systematic work against honor-related violence and oppression. The government has also tasked the Swedish Schools Inspectorate with reviewing schools' work with the knowledge area of sexuality, consent, and relationships, with a focus on preventing and managing honor-related violence and oppression.
Skolverket has in 2024 received a new mandate to prevent, detect, and address men's violence against women, including violence in young people's relationships and honor-related violence and oppression. Skolverket shall also develop, implement, and follow up on measures within the area. The mandate also includes proposing a structure for the coordination of the work.
It is obvious that continued work is required. Honor-related violence and oppression in preschool and school must never be accepted. Individual freedom and human rights shall apply to everyone, regardless of age and regardless of where in Sweden you live. I look forward to returning to how the government intends to continue the work with these pressing issues.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! Honor oppression is a foreign phenomenon due to the mass immigration to Sweden. As a result, we have received immigrant clans to Sweden who have completely different norms than what we have. Despite the fact that they themselves have been subjected to honor oppression, they subject their children to this loathsome culture with a terrible oppression of women. It is an oppression that is passed down generation after generation.
Recently, the auditors in the City of Gothenburg have revealed serious problems in the work against honor oppression within preschools, schools, and social services. But unfortunately, this is a major problem in other places around the country as well.
At the end of January, a new report from Malmö city was released showing that the culture of honor lives and thrives fully in the city's preschools, as a result of the local Social Democrats having completely ignored the children's rights and instead protected their livestock votes.
It is about children of different genders not being allowed to play with each other, not being allowed to hold each other's hands, not being allowed to sleep next to each other during nap time and so on. Girls are also not allowed to wear short sleeves or short trousers and are forced to wear the oppressive veil.
There are also boys who express that they want to rule over female staff and do not need to listen to them just because they are women. Furthermore, parents have removed their children from preschools because the school has hired male staff.
The whole idea with this is that the girls should not come into contact with male staff or children of the opposite sex. It is a gender segregation that does not belong in Sweden.
It is bad enough that the parents try to maintain the honor oppression when the children are in preschool, but they also receive help from the preschool staff. This involves staff who themselves live in an honor context and do not think it is strange that siblings monitor each other or that boys and girls are not allowed to play with each other. There are staff members who believe that the will and power of the guardians and the relatives over the child take precedence over the child's own freedoms and rights.
Those who do not integrate themselves into society cannot be a basis for the children's integration.
Madam Speaker! It can also be staff who are afraid of being subjected to threats or violence from the parents if they refuse to meet with the parents. Staff can be accused of being racists if they resist the oppression.
Many preschools around the country feel a reluctance to clash with controlling parents, and their silence thus allows the oppression to continue far down in the ages, where the honor oppression actually begins. Honor oppression does not begin in the teenage years, for it begins practically already in the cradle.
In preschools, there are opportunities to work preventatively and to detect vulnerability early. Interventions in the work against honor-related violence and oppression must occur early. In order to have a chance to stand up to the parents, it is required that one receives unconditional support from above, for without courageous leaders, the preschool has no chance against the honor culture.
The staff who themselves uphold honor norms or turn a blind eye to them should not be allowed to continue with their work. If one, as preschool staff, cannot stand up to the parents, one should not be allowed to continue working. Either one has a loyalty to the children's best interests or to these despicable norms.
We must break the culture of silence surrounding these issues. If one wants to practice this form of honor-based oppression, one must move away from here. It is important to send a clear signal.
Madam Speaker! I would like to ask the Minister in what way she will act when it concerns staff contributing to the honor oppression.
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Madam Speaker! Already in 2021, the preschool administration in Malmö published a report where it emerged that the children among themselves had regulated dress codes that were influenced by honor norms. Girls were not to show their arms and feet. It also emerged in the report that honor norms characterized the children. Girls were not allowed to play with boys. They were not allowed to sit next to each other, not hold hands, and not even be in the same room during rest time. Boys did not listen to female staff.
The report also revealed that one reason the guardians wanted gender segregation was so that the boys would not become homosexual. For most Swedes, these are completely foreign norms. These ideas, where adults believe that boys become homosexual because they socialize with girls, are neither common nor normal in Sweden. But due to the mass immigration we have had, these honor norms have been normalized in certain parts of Sweden to the extent that the staff find it difficult to resist.
Staff in preschools and schools find it difficult to stand up for evidence, humanism, and equality against these honor norms. Partly this is because those who are to stand up for Swedish values are, numerically, in the minority. There are areas in Sweden where those who believe in Swedish values are in the minority today. Now we see what consequences it has when it is foreign values that take precedence over Swedish values.
Another reason is political. If we have politicians who advocate for multiculturalism - the idea that all cultures are equally worthy - it becomes difficult for staff and school leaders to reject certain cultures that are oppressive.
Madam Speaker! I understand that there are many action plans and strategies to counter honor oppression, and these initiatives from the government deserve to be praised. But it is also time to create an ideological basis for the fight against honor oppression. The ideological basis is to reject multiculturalism and emphasize that in Sweden, Swedish culture takes precedence over other, foreign cultures.
Politicians must signal that they are prepared to actively counter cultures that oppress people and undermine the values that Swedish society rests on. Our ministers in the government must dare to say that there are worse cultures. There are cultures that harm children and that have no place in Sweden. This must be said and repeated by those in power time and again until no preschool teacher or teacher any longer gets the impression that it is part of their task to implement mandatory hijab in schools.
Mistakes have been made. Politicians in Sweden have been far too unclear. We have even had a Minister for Integration, Mona Sahlin, who denied that honor culture existed at all. Signals have been sent out that have made many believe that criticism of honor culture is racism.
Now, those in power must send out completely different signals. We must encourage staff in all operations to be vigilant against harmful cultures that do not belong in this country.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I have myself previously worked with these issues for about 15 years as a school board member in Stockholm. I would say that the attitudes towards honor oppression have sharpened significantly in recent years. When I started working with these issues, I was often accused of being a racist. I think we have moved past that now.
The important thing in these issues is the children's right to decide over their own lives. It is about children's right to develop so that they get a good life and feel well. Children have rights regardless of what their parents have for opinions.
The preschool's and the school's part in this is, according to the legislation we actually have, to support this. It is incredibly important to point that out, I think.
When it comes to the question of the staff, it is clear that there are many problems. It is a major problem if staff in preschool and school experience fear. It can occur in many different situations, not just in this one. But it is a major problem precisely when it concerns honor oppression. It is very important that the employer takes this seriously and takes its workplace environment responsibility.
I also think it is important that functions are created so that people can report these types of actions without it being known who it is that is reporting.
The school safety investigation has received an additional directive concerning the mapping of which pieces of information need to be exchanged between schools, social services, and law enforcement agencies. Confidentiality is a major problem today. Today, confidentiality in Sweden actually protects the perpetrators rather than the children, and we must do something about that. It is incredibly important.
Then there is staff who deliberately contribute to upholding these norms, in complete contradiction to, for example, the Swedish Education Act. I share the view that one really should consider whether that staff should be allowed to keep their positions in, for example, the preschool. One must as a preschool teacher, childcare worker and teacher follow the legislation that exists in the area.
It is the employer's responsibility to ensure that people have the competence and knowledge so that they can perform this assessment, but it is also the employer's responsibility to ensure that staff who are clearly unsuitable for their role are not kept in the operation.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! I actually do not think that one should consider whether staff who contribute to honor-based oppression should be allowed to stay or not. I do not think they should stay at all.
Sweden is often referred to as an equal country, but in what way is the honor culture equal? I find it very difficult to understand how that fits together, because it does not. We might as well scrap all talk about equality, because honor culture is far from equal. You cannot have both.
There is no culture that justifies harming children. It is not possible to have respect for harming children for life - that is exactly what one does. It is not about decency or chastity.
The damage that the Social Democrats have inflicted on the children living in honor oppression will never, ever be able to be repaired. The children will grow up, and they will have to live with these memories and damages. They will feel threatened by men, and they will feel that they need to show their decency. It all depends on the fact that the Social Democrats never saw the problems. Instead of giving the children rights, they gave foreign cultures rights. It can never ever be forgiven.
In Sweden, all students should be able to feel safe in school, and they should have the same opportunities to develop and learn. No one should be harmed, whether at home or in school. The school is for the student, and it is the student as an individual who is the focus. Everyone should have the same opportunities. In the Education Act and the curricula, it is stated that one of the school's fundamental missions is to create a school where all children and young people can develop. The school shall help children learn that all people have equal rights, opportunities, and responsibilities.
When a school suspects that a student is suffering, regardless of the reason, the school must, according to law, report it to social services. But despite knowing that this occurs and that the staff have a duty to report, hardly any reports of concern are submitted at all regarding honor-based oppression.
The staff shall prevent and counter honor-related violence and oppression with active interventions, not contribute to it. The school shall never contribute to a normalization of, for example, a certain religious garment or symbols.
Madam Speaker! Despite this, 27 out of 40 preschools in Gothenburg have shown that they comply with the requirement to ensure that the children keep their veils on. It is something that has truly gone wrong when such things happen - when 27 out of 40 preschools believe they can be veil police and moral police for the children.
Politicians and those in power must clarify how the documents should be interpreted when the whole thing has been misinterpreted in such a fundamental way. Somewhere, it has been believed that the preschool's values imply that there should be a hijab requirement. In that case, something in the system has failed.
The politicians must be more active here. The veil requirement is not compatible with the school's values. The politicians must signal this very clearly.
I know that an investigation is underway regarding a ban on the mandatory hijab. My wish is for a general hijab ban, especially for children. There should be no hijabs on children. I would like to ask the Minister: How is one to see who is forced into the hijab and who is not? How is one to actively help those who are forced into the hijab when even the staff contribute when it comes to this women-oppressing hijab? Does the Minister really believe that small children have chosen the hijab themselves?
Nima Gholam Ali Pour (SD)
Madam Speaker! Honor culture is as harmful to children as pedophilia. There is an important difference between honor culture and pedophilia that affects how politicians debate these issues. Pedophilia can affect all children, while honor culture only affects immigrant children.
How would the public have reacted if ethnically Swedish children had been subjected to the oppression that the honor culture entails? It would have been unacceptable – completely unacceptable. But that immigrant children are affected has been accepted by politicians on the left for decades. Because of the multicultural narrative, where we believe that some children should have a certain culture and other children another culture that is more oppressive, honor oppression has been accepted in certain circles.
Generations have been lost because of multiculturalism's message that even oppressive cultures should be respected, but generations remain to be saved if we have the courage to reject multiculturalism and everything it entails. If we dare to believe in individuals' rights over foreign cultures' rights, there is a possibility for those who are oppressed today to one day free themselves from the shackles of the honor culture.
But it is a conflict. It is a conflict between Swedish values and foreign values. It is a conflict between those who stand up for the individual and those who want to oppress the individual. It is important to see this as a conflict because in this conflict there is a foreign party, which upholds the honor oppression, which must be defeated for freedom and equality to prevail.
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! I share Nima Gholam Ali Pour's view that we have had a cultural relativization in Sweden. In the act and sense of promoting multiculturalism, we have chosen to turn a blind eye when, in some cultures, phenomena have occurred that actually conflict with Swedish law.
That is why I began my previous speech by stating that I myself have worked with these issues for approximately 15 years and that 15 years ago it really was exactly as the member said.
I think that a great change has occurred and that the school, the preschool, and we politicians take these issues much more seriously today than we have done previously.
As Sara Gille says, preschool and school have an absolute obligation to report if one believes that a child is being harmed or risks being harmed. It can be at home, but it can also be that, for example, honor oppression occurs within the preschool, and even then, other staff have an absolute obligation to report to the social services. Some of this consists of purely criminal acts, and in those cases, a police report is naturally the only correct course of action.
I spoke earlier about the School Safety Inquiry, which has just presented proposals regarding the fact that crimes committed in the school world should be reported to the police. This does not always happen today. Crimes should, of course, be reported to the police, but I believe that this also has a kind of preventive effect. Now we are saying that these are such serious crimes that one cannot look away.
There is a great responsibility on employers to ensure that staff have knowledge, but also to ensure that staff who actively and consciously uphold codes of honor and support such things do not have a role when it comes to working in the preschool.
Sara Gille (SD)
Madam Speaker! Preschool staff have a responsibility to see and help the children and a great responsibility to counteract honor-related violence and oppression. The preschool is a place where one is expected to live free from honor-related violence and oppression.
If you work at any of the country's preschools, you need to have knowledge of honor-related violence and oppression, of relevant legislation, and of how to work to detect vulnerability among the students and counteract this. The children, in turn, receive knowledge about their basic rights. It is about bodily integrity, about being able to live a life free from violence, and about the right to shape and influence one's life as one wishes. We absolutely must not have staff in the preschool who practice honor norms. We must protect and support the children, not own them. As it is now, a state within a state is being built.
I want to conclude my final post by saying that no religion or culture has any rights. It is the human being who has rights and obligations - not only towards the state, society and oneself but also towards other people. No religion or culture shall stand above Swedish legislation.
I sincerely believe that we must clearly show that if one adopts that form of culture here in Sweden, one is out. We must set hard against hard. Not to resist the honor oppression in preschool would be the same as approving that there are different rules for ethnically Swedish children and for children with immigrant backgrounds. Precisely so have the left-wing parties acted in recent decades, and it will never be forgiven.
What does the government value most – that children should engage with school and learn things, or that the honor culture should be protected?
Statsrådet Lotta Edholm (L)
Madam Speaker! Preschool is important for children's development and for the opportunity to gradually have good knowledge when starting school, including in the form of good language development.
For many children, preschool and school are also a free zone. It can be the only place where one can actually be oneself and be allowed to be that. Therefore, the school must partly be aware that for many children, the school is a free zone, and partly actively keep the norms of honor outside of the preschool and school world. There is an absolute responsibility for the staff in preschool and school to do this. It is extremely clear how the Education Act is designed in Sweden to support individual students and children in this.
Preschool and school also have a role in actively promoting human rights and teaching children to think independently. Children should know that they have rights that are solely theirs, regardless of what their parents think. It is therefore not just about ensuring that staff do not uphold honor norms and honor culture, but also that staff actively promote that children get to learn about their rights in Swedish preschool and school. I also think it is important to point that out.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.