Response to interpellation 2025/26:25 on honor norms and religious mandates in schools
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L believes that school should be a place for freedom and equality where children are not forced to follow religious customs 1. L argues that the government has taken measures against honor-related violence through increased supervision 1 2 and that they are doing historical things by changing the policy to stop unserious actors 3. L wants to remove unserious religious independent schools and demands that staff do not uphold the honor culture 4. SD believes that school must be a sanctuary from religious pressures as honor norms are a threat to children's freedom 5. SD argues that the school yields to religious oppression through, for example, specific prayer times 5 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Sara Gille has asked me how I intend to ensure that school becomes a place where girls are fully guaranteed freedom and equality. Sara Gille has also asked me if I intend to take measures to stop religious and cultural demands from influencing the school's teaching and activities. Sara Gille has finally asked me how I and the government will follow up that schools in practice guarantee girls the same right to education, sports, and school activities as boys.
All children have the right to education. Children residing in Sweden have a compulsory school attendance, which means that they have an obligation to attend school and participate in the activities organized to provide the intended education. Education in Swedish school shall be designed in accordance with basic democratic values and human rights. The school shall also convey and anchor these values. Education in school shall be objective, versatile, and as a rule non-confessional. Children and students shall, based on their right to freedom of religion, have the opportunity to express their faith as well as to refrain from participating in confessional elements in the education at schools where such elements occur. I want to be very clear that children and students shall not be forced to practice a religious belief or follow religious customs and traditions against their will. Those who work in the school are obliged to report to the social welfare committee if they become aware of or suspect that a child is being harmed.
The Government has taken measures to promote the fundamental democratic mission of education. For example, since 2023, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate has been tasked with strengthening its supervision of schools with a confessional orientation and other schools where the authority assesses that there is a risk profile for extremism and Islamism. This also applies regarding instances where students might otherwise be exposed to influence aimed at opposing fundamental free and civil rights or the democratic system of government.
Another priority issue for the government is to prevent and counter honor-related violence and oppression. The government has recently introduced a new gender equality policy sub-goal that honor-related violence and oppression shall cease. Since 2021, Skolverket has been tasked with strengthening the schools' and preschools' systematic work against honor-related violence and oppression. The government decided in 2023 to allocate additional funds to the assignment, which continues until the end of 2025.
The government also gave Skolverket a new assignment in January 2024 regarding countering honor-related violence and oppression. In addition, Skolverket and Folkhälsomyndigheten have been tasked with updating and supplementing support materials for teaching within the knowledge area of sexuality, consent, and relationships.
The Government also decided in March 2025 to task a special investigator to, among other things, propose measures to counter honor-related violence and oppression and propose how staff in preschools and schools can receive stronger support to be able to prevent, detect, and counter honor-related violence and oppression. The investigation shall report on its assignment by August 12, 2026, at the latest.
Sara Gille (SD)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
We know that the government and the minister, together with the Sweden Democrats, are doing a lot in this area. That is very good. But the problem still remains, and it is not about individual cases. It is the state's responsibility to defend the children's freedom. But here, it is failing.
School should be a sanctuary, and in many cases, it is. For children who live with honor norms and have that life at home, it can feel like a sanctuary to be able to come to school. But unfortunately, it is not so for all students. In school, there can also be pressures to uphold the honor norms.
In school, it should be about knowledge, freedom and equality – nothing else. It should be free from religious and ideological pressures. Yet, time and again, we hear about schools that influence the children. One should have the right to develop as an individual without pressures and independent of the family's background, culture and faith. The school should represent the state and Swedish values, not the home and not the clan.
Unfortunately, honor norms are one of the most underestimated threats to children's freedom in Sweden today. In 2024, the School Inspectorate inspected 28 schools with a confessional orientation. In over half of them, Mr. Speaker, deficiencies were found regarding voluntariness and that the teaching was not fully based on a scientific foundation.
The National Competence Team against Honor-Related Violence and Oppression estimated in 2023 that around 240,000 children live with honor norms, and it limits their freedom. These are inconceivable figures.
According to the curriculum and the school plan, the school shall be non-confessional, just as the minister himself says. The school's activities shall be based on a scientific foundation. It is not an interpretation. It is a law, and it shall be upheld.
Exceptions with reference to religion and culture shall not occur. Nevertheless, we see that it happens all over the country. We hear it time and again about school after school. It can, for example, be about specific swimming times. Most recently, I heard about a school in Huddinge that had specific swimming times for girls and boys and gender-segregated education; the girls do not need to be included in the sex education and so on. This weakens not only the school's authority but also the trust in equality as a principle. The school yields to religious oppression.
This law applies to everyone. It does not apply only to certain people. But that is how it has become. Girls are prevented from participating in education on equal terms.
We also see the veil as early as preschool age and pressures regarding the veil. Teachers also help to uphold the honor norms and contribute to this. The school is supposed to be a sanctuary, as said, but we do not see that today. Religiously motivated norms are allowed to influence everyday life in the school. This is not sustainable.
I would like to conclude by asking the Minister in what way action will be taken against schools that allow religious and ideological pressures that restrict girls' right to freedom and education.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! The Government has stepped up the fight against honor-related violence and oppression. We are taking many measures to reverse the development we see in Sweden, because we do not compromise on Swedish values.
The government has made efforts, not least within the school area, to increase the control of confessional elements in education, among other things through a mandate to Skolinspektionen. The agency has also been tasked with strengthening supervision in schools where they assess that there is a risk profile, not least when it concerns extremism and Islamism but also where they believe there may be an influence aimed at opposing the fundamental freedoms and rights that apply to all children.
We have also ensured that the suitability assessment of individuals applying to become heads of institutions within the school system is expanded with democratic conditions. Regardless of whether the applicant has previously conducted activities with confessional elements or not, we have expanded this suitability assessment.
The government also decided this spring on an investigation to see exactly what increased measures are needed to counter honor-related violence and oppression in preschool, school, and after-school care. These measures shall be focused on what knowledge base the staff need to have, but it must also be very clear how one is to uphold and adhere to Swedish law. Therefore, the assignment focuses on how one can both prevent as well as detect and actively counter it.
Let me be clear, Mr. Speaker. Children and students shall not be forced into anything. Above all, they shall not be controlled or restricted, whether it concerns the choice of clothing as an expression of honor-related violence and oppression or how they participate in the school's various activities.
We have, as we have said, stepped up the work against honor-related violence and oppression, precisely as a defense for all these children and students in Sweden. School and preschool staff are obligated to report when they suspect that someone is being harmed. They must absolutely not be part of upholding these harmful and undemocratic forms of oppression of children.
The Government has taken and will continue to take several measures to counter honor-related violence and oppression in its various forms, as it violates the individual's freedom. We also see that both knowledge and competence in the area need to be further strengthened among all staff working within the school.
Sara Gille (SD)
Mr. Speaker! Yes, we are doing very much. I am very happy that we finally have a government that, together with the Sweden Democrats, is doing very much in this area.
I want to answer the minister on this point that they are obliged to report. Yes, that is so, but unfortunately, it is not everyone who actually does it.
Then I also want to emphasize that we have something called freedom of religion. It is the right to have a faith, but also the right to not have a faith. When children as young as preschool age wear a veil, I do not believe they have chosen it themselves, but rather it is pressure from the family and so on.
I would like to ask the minister a question about this. The Sweden Democrats have been very proactive in the issue of veils in preschool, school, public environments and so on, but have not received any response. I have also raised this question on many occasions towards the Liberals' representatives in the rostrum but have not been heard. But now KD has come out with this regarding the veil ban, and we have heard from the Liberals that they think it is good. I would like to know what the minister thinks about veils in preschool. Does the minister consider it wrong? Will the minister do anything about it? Does the minister see that it is a problem with veils at preschool age? I would very much like to have an answer on that part.
When the school does not set any boundaries, one legitimizes the control of the girls. The girls learn that they are to be subdued from childhood. This is something that we in Sweden contribute to in school. But the school should be a free zone. The school should simply stand for equality, education, and nothing else.
I also want to emphasize that children's rights differ very much depending on where in the country they live. The rights simply depend on which zip code the children have, which is remarkable.
We have the Convention on the Rights of the Child to adhere to. We have the Istanbul Convention to adhere to. We have very many laws and rules. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been Swedish law since 2020. It shall protect against harmful traditions and also applies to religiously motivated restrictions in school. We have all of this in our luggage that we must adhere to, yet this happens in the country time and again.
Again: I would very much like to hear from the Minister about the veil and the veil ban within schools and public environments. I would very much like the Minister to elaborate a bit more on that part.
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Children have the right to form their own opinions and freely express these. Children and students have the opportunity to express their faith. They also have the right to abstain from participating in confessional elements and abstain from expressing their faith. Children have a right to a private life and cannot be forced to tell about their thoughts or confess a religion. They also have the right not to be forced into this. It is crucial.
We are currently reforming large parts of both school and integration policy. We are doing this in order to protect children and ensure that everyone who grows up in Sweden has the same rights. One of the inquiries that I highlighted and that we have commissioned is intended to see how one can detect and prevent honor culture, but also what should be done when it is suspected that children are being subjected to it. This is crucial.
The members of the committee ask about uncertainty in Sweden regarding whether one should report or not. We have a very clear Social Services Act which explicitly states that one has an obligation to report if one suspects that a child is being harmed. It is therefore nothing that is optional, but it is an obligation that the heads of organizations are responsible for ensuring that everyone who works fulfills.
I believe that the most important thing we can do is to continue to be clear about what applies in our schools and preschools, so that children and young students do not have to be exposed. The major task is to ensure that the staff working there do not uphold the culture of honor or honor violence. It is therefore not just a question of them needing to report if they suspect that coercion is occurring. If, for example, children choose to take off the veil, the staff must not put it back on. We cannot have a system where staff uphold these injustices.
It is probably no secret to the member that the Liberals have long pushed for us to get rid of the religious independent schools, which I consider to be a problem here. I am glad that we in this government have made major efforts to curb the confessional schools, whose starting point is often that the religious characteristics shall be maintained. We have done this, among other things, through amendments to the Education Act. We have tightened requirements for independent schools with a confessional orientation, and we are much clearer that one needs to comply with democratic requirements when one wants to start a school.
There are, therefore, two parts to my answer to the member's question. One is that it is crystal clear that staff shall not uphold or contribute to honor-related violence and oppression, and that they shall report any suspicion in accordance with Swedish law. The other is that we must remove those schools that are unprofessional and use religion as part of the school activities instead of focusing on the actual school activities.
Sara Gille (SD)
Mr. Speaker! Yes, we have the right to abstain from faith, just as we have the right to have a faith. But despite that, there are different bath times. Despite that, there are different sleeping times for girls and boys in preschool. Despite that, there is also the veil in the preschool environment. It can be so that staff push and ensure that the veil is on. This can happen partly because they want it themselves, and partly because they are afraid of the parents' pressure.
The Minister speaks about the reporting obligation and everything surrounding it. It is very good, but is it being controlled? This is still happening in Sweden, despite the fact that we have a reporting obligation. Despite the fact that we have all these rules and laws, the problem exists. We simply see that it continues anyway.
Then I would like to stay on this matter regarding the headscarf ban. The Liberals have not been for a headscarf ban before. This is something new. When members of the Liberals have raised the question and submitted proposals to the assemblies, the Liberals have voted against. I think this is very interesting. But I would still like to know: Will the minister push for a headscarf ban in preschool and school? What does the minister think regarding that part? That is what I would most like to know. I just want a straight answer. Will the minister do it – yes or no?
Utbildnings- och integrationsministern Simona Mohamsson (L)
Mr. Speaker! I have come here today to answer a question about what we are doing regarding honor-related norms and religious dictates in schools. I am pleased that we in this government are doing historical things. We are reshaping integration and school policy. There are unserious actors, and there is staff who are not participating in upholding democratic values. This must not be allowed to continue.
I have described in my response to the Member of Parliament what we intend to do. Something that is central to the work we need to do moving forward is the investigation that we will receive in August next year. Central to that investigation is to come up with proposals on how staff can prevent, counteract, and detect honor-related violence and oppression. I think it is important that we receive that investigation and see what proposals are there. We need to make it easier for Sweden's principals to use the tools we provide.
My starting point is that we shall continue to work on the established path. But we also need to wait for that investigation to see exactly which measures are required for us to be able to curb those who oppress children and students. That is my starting point, and it is also the answer to the question I have received from the member.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.