– Arranged marriages are a variant of forced marriage. There is no tradition of arranged marriages in modern, western culture, says Sylvi Listhaug, leader of the Fremskrittspartiet (Frp). She is now launching 14 concrete measures in the Storting which the party believes will help combat negative social control and honor crimes. FRP refers to the attention these questions have again received after articles in Aftenposten and news Brennpunkt’s documentary series “Ære”. Will criminalize arranged marriages One of the issues is the criminalization of arranged marriages, which the FRP has previously advocated. – There is a smooth transition between arranged marriages and forced marriages. Many non-Western immigrants experience marriage as central to passing on family culture, faith and identity. Concern for the children’s future marriage is therefore a central driving force for the exercise of social control, believes Listhaug, and refers to a Fafo report from 2019. In the same report, “Migration, parenting and social control”, according to the Frp leader, it appears that 42 percent of Pakistani women in Norway state that their spouse is mainly chosen by their parents. Many Norwegian Pakistanis have spouses who are mainly chosen by their parents. Photo: Getty Images The proposal Listhaug puts forward reads as follows: “The Storting asks the government to equate arranged marriages with forced marriages, and that it should be punished in the same way. – One hundred percent voluntary – I myself was married in an arranged marriage. Even though it was my parents who came up with the proposal, it was one hundred percent voluntary that we married each other, says Ayaz Butt. He is chairman of the organization DiaPraksis, which works against negative social control and forced marriage. – In our culture, there are many people who do not go out themselves and explore the possibilities with girlfriends and possible partners. That’s how it was with me too. So when my parents met her who became my wife at a company and proposed to her, I contacted her and got to know her, says Butt, who is Norwegian-Pakistani. He does not think anything of Frp’s proposal to criminalize arranged marriages, but is not surprised that the party comes up with such proposals. – Forced marriages and arranged marriages cannot be compared, says Butt. Ayaz Butt is chairman of the organization DiaPraksis, which works against forced marriage. He is critical of the proposal to criminalize forced marriage. Photo: Private – But aren’t there gray areas here? – No. Because if someone is pressured into an arranged marriage, either psychologically or physically, then it is a forced marriage, answers Butt. There are gray areas where forced marriage can be difficult to detect, acknowledges the chairman of DiaPraksis. – But it is more important to work preventively to get young people and adults to make good decisions in the choice of spouses than to criminalize arranged marriages, says Butt. – Important that parents and children have the same lifestyle – Arranged marriage is not the same as coercion. It is a collaboration between parents and children to find spouses. But the children choose for themselves, says Shazia Andaleeb in the Intercultural Women’s Group. When a couple gets married in the Pakistani environment, two families develop a relationship. Therefore, the whole family is involved, explains the Norwegian-Pakistani woman. – Parents do not push a partner on their children that they do not like. And the children also don’t choose a partner that their parents don’t like, says Andaleeb, who has worked in the Intercultural Women’s Group at Furuset in Oslo since 2012. She says that arranged marriages safeguard something important in Pakistani culture: – In Pakistani families, there can be different thoughts and lifestyles between the parents and the children, but they cooperate and respect each other about what they like and don’t like, says Andaleeb. Does the FRP take people’s freedom away – How much control does the FRP think the authorities should have over each person’s life, asks Sammia Naz Zaem, who has worked as a marriage counselor and mediator in immigrant communities in Norway for 20 years. Sammia Naz Zaem, who has worked for 20 years as a marriage counselor and mediator in immigrant communities in Norway. Photo: Private She repeats what she has said all along; that coercion is not in line with Islam. She reacts strongly to Listhaug’s reasoning that arranged marriages are coercion. – What is the definition of arranged? Who and how should we define this term? Will websites with “match-making” also become illegal, asks the Norwegian-Pakistani woman. – Some people find it difficult to convey feelings to others and get a partner for life. They may be afraid to make the right choice alone. Then they can get help from someone they trust to make suggestions about who they can marry, explains Naz Zaem. Then the young person can choose for themselves if a candidate is proposed who arouses emotions. – Then it will be both arranged and love, says Naz Zaem, who points out that even ethnic Norwegians in many cases get help from family and friends to find lovers for life. – And the FRP will take this opportunity away from us! It only creates more loneliness, says Naz Zaem. – All arranged marriages contain pressure or coercion – How does the FRP intend that in practice one should enforce that arranged marriages become illegal? – It is important that the competence of both the police and all other support services is strengthened, so that it is easier to detect and react when there is a suspicion that a marriage is being entered into under pressure or coercion, Listhaug replies. FRP’s proposal for measures against crimes of honor The Storting asks the government to equate arranged marriages with forced marriages, and that it should be punished in the same way. The Storting asks the government to come back to the Storting with amendments to Section 196, fourth paragraph of the Criminal Code, so that the law does not only cover the child’s parent, stepparent, foster parent or someone else who has daily care for the child, but also includes aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings and other family members . The Storting asks the government to introduce an integration contract for non-Western immigrants. Such a contract must contain clear requirements that one accepts Norwegian laws, rules and values, for example related to equality, child rearing, democracy, the principles of the rule of law, freedom of expression and freedom of religion, that the refugee participates in language training, gets into work. In the event of a breach of the integration contract, this must be dealt with, e.g. loss of residence permit, financial sanctions, etc. The Storting asks the government to ensure that the police have the necessary funds and legal authority to prioritize and handle cases of negative social control and honor crimes. The Storting asks the government to ensure that knowledge about the culture of honor and honor violence is sufficiently safeguarded in education for the police, child welfare, schools and the health sector. The Storting asks the government to focus on and ensure that employees in schools, kindergartens, child welfare services, health services and the police gain increased knowledge and competence to detect and follow up early on where children are exposed to negative social control and honour-related violence. The Storting asks the government to draw up, update and strengthen information and guidance on how children and young people who are abroad against their will should be followed up and given help if they make contact with embassies, child welfare or other public bodies, in order to prevent the children from applies, does not experience being taken seriously. The Storting asks the government to ensure that parents who send children abroad against their will, where they risk negative social control, forced marriage, genital mutilation, violence and the like, must be prosecuted and deprived of the right to care for their own children. The Storting asks the government to ensure that in cases where parents with a temporary residence permit send children abroad against their will, where they risk negative social control, forced marriage, genital mutilation, violence and the like, the residence permit of the parents must be withdrawn. The Storting asks the government to ensure that in cases where parents with a permanent residence permit send children abroad against their will where they risk negative social control, forced marriage, genital mutilation, violence and the like, the accrual period for obtaining citizenship is reset to zero. The Storting asks the government to ensure that parents who send children on longer stays abroad, which hinder integration, are to be deprived of child benefit, and benefits are to be repaid from the day the children left Norway. The Storting asks the government to ensure that people who contribute to gross negative social control such as e.g. forced marriage, genital mutilation, etc. And those who have a temporary residence permit as a fixed general rule must lose their residence permit. The Storting asks the government to survey cases where child protection has contributed when parents have wanted to send children out of the country. The Storting also asks the government to put an immediate end to the practice of child protection being able to contribute to children being sent abroad against their will. The Storting asks the government to ensure that the following requirements are met for family reunification of spouses: “Each of the bride and groom must declare on their honor and conscience that the marriage was entered into of their own free will, and that they recognize each other’s equal right to divorce”. She believes that the enforcement of the legislation must be done in the same way as all other legislation. – But what is the definition of arranged marriage; What types of marriage do you think should be illegal? – Arranged marriage means in practice that the family, from a very early age, prepares the child that it is the family that will choose a partner. We therefore believe that all arranged marriages will contain elements of pressure or coercion, says Listhaug. – Women must have a real right to divorce Among the other proposals Sylvi Listhaug puts forward in the Storting, we find the demand that an integration contract be introduced for non-Western immigrants. – Such a contract must contain clear requirements that one accepts Norwegian laws, rules and values, for example related to equality, child-rearing and freedom of religion, explains the Frp leader. Another proposal is to make a requirement at family reunification that the spouses must each declare on their honor and conscience that the marriage was entered into of their own free will, and that they recognize each other’s equal right to divorce. – We believe that family reunification of spouses should not be granted without women having a real right to divorce, says Listhaug.
ttn-69
Will criminalize arranged marriages – news Dokumentar
