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Embassies prepped to prevent forced marriages

Published: 14 Jun 11 08:26 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/34334/20110614/

Young Swedes facing being forced into marriage while abroad this summer can expect more help from Swedish embassies and consulates abroad, according to the Swedish foreign ministry.

“While most are looking forward to the summer holidays when school is substituted to swimming and playing, some young boys and girls are instead worrying that the family are planning to force them into marriage abroad,” foreign minister Carl Bildt and minister for equality Nyamko Sabuni wrote in daily Aftonbladet.

Bildt and Sabuni also point to statistics from the National Board for Youth Affairs (Ungdomsstyrelsen) 8,500 young people in Sweden today say they are worried that they won’t get a say in who they will marry.

According to the advice on the foreign ministry webpage anyone worried about this should in the first instance contact the social services or the police where they live prior to travelling.

Those that still choose to go on the trip are advised to bring the contact details of Swedish authorities and a mobile phone with an extra SIM-card.

To write down all the numbers for friends and family in the country that you believe might be of help once there is also a god idea, according to the webpage.

Swedish embassies have recently received instructions as to what they can and should do if contacted by children and youths seeking help in relation to forced marriage or family related threats or violence abroad, according to the government.

TT/The Local/rm (news@thelocal.se)

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09:30 June 14, 2011 by occassional
... some young boys and girls are instead worrying that the family are planning to force them into marriage abroad"

Very typically Swedish that.
11:02 June 14, 2011 by johnny1939
Again, our tax money is being wasted on nonsense & what about contacting Swedish Embassies(if u can find one since many have and are being closed)what are they going to do about it? Such rubbish! If you are Swedish you have rights and I have never heard about anyone being forced into marriage these days.
11:55 June 14, 2011 by me_i_sverige
Make the system like Denmark for bringing their spouses. The 24-year-old rule and point system had largely curbed the forced-marriage at very young age as well as paper-marriage (for the sole purpose of getting permanent residence permit). I do agree, Danish system is too strict, but Sweden has to form some sort of rule to tackle it.
12:01 June 14, 2011 by helveeta
What the hell? I learn something new about how these people are effing the system every day here on the local! Total BS!
12:55 June 14, 2011 by luke123
Looks like my campaign efforts are fruitful. The Swedes moral panic has shifted from being terrified of being forced into prostitution to being scared of marriage ;-)
04:46 June 15, 2011 by jackx123
Men should have sex slaves, says female Kuwaiti politician

National Staff

Jun 6, 2011

KUWAIT CITY // Salwa al Mutairi, a former parliamentary candidate, said in a video posted on You Tube last month that sex slaves should be legal and prisoners from war-torn countries, such as Chechnya, would make suitable concubines.

Ms al Mutairi said she asked Saudi muftis what the Islamic ruling was on owning sex slaves while on a trip to Mecca because she had a male colleague who was "young and something of a womaniser".

The mufti told her it is not haram, or forbidden, she said. "The context must be that of a Muslim nation conquering a non-Muslim nation, so these jawari have to be prisoners of war."

Jariya is an Arabic term meaning "concubine" or "sex slave". The plural of the word is jawari.

Ms al Mutairi said free women must be married with a contract but, with concubines, "the man just buys her and that's it. That's enough to serve as marriage".

The ruling was confirmed by "specialised people of the faith" in Kuwait, she said. "They said, 'That's right, the only solution for a decent man who has the means, who is overpowered by desire and who does not want to commit fornication, is to acquire jawari'."

Offices could be opened to run the sex trade in the same way recruitment agencies provide domestic labourers, Ms al Mutairi suggested.

"One of the countries where [I see this trade is possible] is Chechnya. The country is at war with another state, so there are some captives for sure. I say go and buy those captives, they might just die of hunger over there. I say go and buy them and sell them to merchants here in Kuwait who may otherwise commit a sin."

"I don't see anything wrong with it, nothing at all," she said, adding that the caliph Haroun al Rashid had one wife and more than 2,000 concubines in his possession when he died.

"So there's no shame in it and it is not haram, our Sharia law allows it," she said.

Haroun al Rashid ruled over an area covered by modern-day Iran, Iraq and Syria 12 centuries ago.

Ms al Mutairi's video on You Tube has been viewed more than 84,000 times since it was uploaded on May 24.

Ms al Mutairi finished 23rd in the fifth constituency with more than 1,200 votes in the parliamentary election in 2009.

Candidates who finish in the top 10 are selected for parliament.

* The National
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