It is time to talk about women’s rights in the asylum process
I have been involved with work with asylum seekers since the autumn 2015. During this time, through hints and common sense I have been rather concerned the whole time about how women cope with circumstances both before arriving here and after arriving here.
It has been difficult to get a hold on the women however. Men are so much more assertive and the women has also chosen to be rather silent about their things. To get rid of the fear takes time. Also, we need to be much better in being clear about what constitutes women’s right in this country for new-comers. It is their right and duty to know.
Women’s rights, the circumstances in for example Iraq, and women’s situation in the reception centres has been covered and talked about way too little.
Today I met up with one Arabic and one Kurdish woman from Iraq to discuss things that I feel that has been left outside much of the media coverage. These two ladies also said, that they had chosen to be silent for a very long time because of fear, but now they do want to speak up about what women are enduring. I was glad that they wanted to share their stories with me. We met today for the first time, and I hope we will by time develop a cooperation in working for women’s rights together.
During our conversation, some very concerning issues came up immediately.
One of these issues were that one of the ladies had been abused and sexually harrassed in the reception centre by men from her country. The reason, because she was here alone without family. The staff at the centre did not interfere when she brought this up with them. They also refused to call the police with the excuse that the police station would have been closed because it was outside office hours. The abuse had been catched on the security cameras, but it did not make the staff any more cooperative in helping the woman filing a report. This happened in a reception centre in northern Finland.
Another aspect that made me somewhat shocked with the staff at the reception centre was that the other woman told me that she has been circumcised and when she finally got the courage to speak about that with the social worker at her reception centre, the social worker did not first want to believe that FGM was done in Iraq. Our officials should however know better than this. It does not take more than a quick search on in the Internet to find information about this.
Both of these women had escaped their families because of abuse and forced marriage. One of the women were 15 years old when her brother wanted her to marry a much older man. In the migration interview one of the ladies was asked if she could not move to Bagdad or Kurdistan. To suggest to a woman to go and live in the Iraqi Kurdistan or Bagdad alone without any family to support and back her up…? Should not the migration office officials know better than that?
Both of these women have been disavowed by their family and risk being killed.
The women tell me that there is no other way than to live with your family or get married. If both options are unbearable, women might commit suicide because there is no other way. If the family is not good for the girl, she has nowhere she can turn.
Another very alarming aspect of this was that these women were still scared from the population from their country. They are afraid to go to the disco, or to talk about their family situation, to admit that they live alone and so on. Even though we are in Finland where democratic freedom and Human Rights should entail everyone. In practice, however, it does not.
If we fail with the integration, we will fail with the work for peace.
It is important that each and everyone understands democratic principles, really understand them. We have read a big bulk of media coverage of how the justice system is failing the asylum seeking men. This is of course important, when the justice system is failing, it also means democracy and institutions that is supposed to protect human rights is failing.
However, we have seen less of coverage of the way the system is failing asylum seeking women, especially the services at the reception centres, and we need to take this into account and look into this. But, also, as we can read in the newspapers about the case of Lara (Turun Sanomat 30.6.2017), it is not to be taken for granted that the migration policies considers the need of protection of a woman who risks the options being killed or forcibly married if she is returned to her country. This does not measure up to the women’s rights that Finland should be a model country for.
Also, we really need to emphasize to each and everyone that equality includes also equality between the sexes. this is one very essential aspect of democracy. If people come here for peace and justice, they also need to learn what it takes to build it. This require work, and responsibility from both the receiving, but also from the received population. One relevant aspect to point out is that to come for peace, justice and democracy also means that it is essential to respect the principles that upholds them. To respect women as equal to men is one of them. This means in small and big things. No-one has no right to bully a woman, calling here a whore or bad woman when she enjoys the same freedoms as men, such as living alone or enjoying sex on her own conditions for example. No-one has the right to threat or scorn others, for example because of belonging to gender and sexuality-minorities or racialized “others”. And of course, no-one has the right to abuse or kill anyone, not in the name of (dis/)honour, or any other reason.
We all need to work for upholding democratic principles together. We have forces both inside and outside the borders of this country that challenges them. We need to stay clear in what constitutes democracy, stability and peace. Women’s equal rights is part of that and we all need to take responsibility of that together, now.
References:
Honour-based violence in the Kurdistan region
Fighting FGM in Iraq
Det är en väldigt viktig och angelägen fråga du tar upp. Jag försökte själv tillsamman med en kompis från Profeministmännen jobba med invandrarmän på flyktingförläggningen i Forsby i Hfors (innan den stängdes). Vår idé var en samtalsgrupp där vi kunde tala om allt som en man från en sydlig kultur borde känna till om han vill integrera sig i vår kultur. Ett av de centrala begreppen var just jämställdhet och könmsroller och hur de uttrycks i Norden. Det gick inte så bra med vår grupp, dels pga språksvårigheterna, de flesta kunde ingen engelska alls så vi fick leta efter tolk och dels pga att förläggningen lades ned relativt snabbt.
Alla invandrare på den förläggningen var män. Och då var åtminstone den spänningen undanröjd. Men ska invandrarkvinnors integrering och problem diskuteras måste nog den finländska parten absolut vara kvinna, och helst involverande invandrarkvinnor som själva lyckats med sin integrering. Såna kvinnor hittar man t.ex i Monika-Naiset
Jo, jag har själv dragit seminariet på f.förläggning några gånger om sexualitet och lagstiftning i Finland. Hade tolkar. Lättare hade det varit ifall Röda Korset varit mer sammarbetsvilliga också.
Typiskt nog blev en kille just friad från åtal för planerande av mord på sin syster, vet inte riktigt vad jag ska tycka om det där. Låter i mina öron som att HD dragit en jäkligt naiv slutsats här, framförallt den det där nämnadet om att ”i meddelandena framkom även en oro”, öööh, ja-a, det hör till bilden liksom, och manipulation är i allra högsta grad relevant i sammanhanget. Alltså visst, domar måste övervägas noga, men det här låter nog inte riktigt rätt:
KO hylkäsi syytteen kunniamurhan valmistelusta
Certainly the usual dealing of Finnish authorities with refugees in general and refugee women in special leaves this and that to be desired … . But could it help some if
(a) the above report about those two women could find its way into some bigger newspaper? If so, one could follow the matter up further with letters to the editor (so that the matter should not be so easily forgotten). And
(b) there is in northern Syria that area/organization of Rojava, where women are fighting and (according to a propaganda video) Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg are kept in high honour, and there are in Helsinki a few people who try to support and promote Rojava (google ”Rojava Helsinki”, and there perhaps ”Rojava-näyttely”). It would be just logical if these people would be willing (and hopefully also able) to help women like those in the above case.
We were actually also discussing Rojava and and different Kurdish movements and political parties with these women. However, they are in Finland now, the things topical right now is how to cope with the past, this general society here and the communities here right now.
To avoid misunderstandings: Could one perhaps get the Rojava activists IN HELSINKI to do something?
Aside of this, there was in Hbl of Ons 5.07. on pp.4-5 a longish article about a new stödcentral for women (meant for victims of sexual violence; but also the women in the above piece are threatened with at least some form of violence, and as Amnesty International was reported to have reacted strongly – positively – to this new stödcentral, they seem to be interested and could perhaps be approached(?)).
Could you link the article from HBL?
Rojava activists have been in Helsinki sometimes. Any suggestions for what you would you wish them to do? I can ask them.
As to linking the article, I am afraid that I am a bit too ”pre-electronic” (= too stupid) for that, but (a) perhaps some other reader of this blog could do it, or (b) I could send it by snailmail (whatever help that would be – the article is about ”den nya stödcentralen för personer som upplevt sexuellt våld”, situated ”på Kvinnokliniken i Helsingfors”, men betjånar även besökare från Esbo och Vanda). A possibility (c) would be to contact the office of Amnesty International in Helsinki (as the second headline of the article reports that one Pia Puu Oksanen på Amnesty International was jubilant about the new center).
As to Rojava activists, I should expect that they should be committed to things like women’s liberation (thus be motivated to try and help – either by organizing practical help or, e.g., by using their contacts to set up groups in which one can talk about these matters and perhaps also feel accepted and integrated). That there IS a serious problem does, after all, become clear by your piece (to quote: Both of these women have been disavowed by their families and risk being killed.).
As to my own possibilities, I do have SOME (not very close) contact to Helsinki Tatars, who, being Muslims and fully integrated into the Finnish society, might be fit to inform other Muslims about the Finnish culture in ways which do not insult Muslim feelings too badly.
But of course, MUCH depends on where people actually are. There may be many things which are (perhaps) possible in Helsinki, but very probably not possible outside Kehä III …
Artikeln verkar ligga bakom HBl:s betalvägg; det enda man får se utan att betala för det eller registrera sig är rubriken En stödcentral – ett sjumilasteg framåt plus de två första raderna av artikeln där Maja-Stina Andersson intervjuar Pia Puu Oksanen som leder Amnestys kvinnovåldsgrupp (Joku Raja!).
Men registrerar man sig och skapar ett konto – det påstås vara gratis – vilket jag nu gjorde, för att kolla påståendet – kan man faktiskt läsa hela artikeln. Kopierar in texten här:
Hej, och tack för kommentarerna och länkarna. Jo, Rojava aktivisterna (eller vänsteraktiva kurder som inte hänför sig enbart till Rojava) jobbar för kvinnors rättigheter. Vad de gör helt konkret här är jag inteb helt informerad om, men de jobbar över nationsgränserna på sätt eller annat. men ska försöka prata lite med dem.
Sen är det inte direkt en Islam-fråga, nog för att jag skulle hävda att den spelar en roll som metod och diskursstruktur i att upprätthålla och skapa förtryck. Och faktiskt, just den här religionsfrågan är väldigt intressant för den innehåller så polariserade argument. Många som flytt förtryck och teokratiska system, som väljer att slänga hijaben och hävdar att Islams trossystem per definition är extremt förtryckande. Sen finns det de som hävdar raka motsatsen, talar för att de förtryckande mönstren är kultur, inte religion (inte skulle ha nåt med Islam att göra), och att Islam egentligen är en egalitär religion. Måste själv erkänna att jag blir ganska skeptisk när någon hävdar att Islam i sig är egalitär, framförallt om man inte är beredd att diskutera teologiska frågor och ta ställning till dem utan tar shortcutten och hävdar att all ond islam bara är ”fel” islam.
Jag vet t.ex att det finns män i Finland som har upp till 4 fruar, vigda enligt det Islamska sättet. Det är ju inte juridiskt bindande i Finland, men levnadssättet upprätthålls i.a.f Och nu menar jag, vigda här, av lokala Imamer.
Meanwhile there was still a piece of information in Hbl: On Måndag 10 Juli, p.17, there was a letter by one Sean Nugent, titled ”Stöd finns att få för hedersrelaterat våld”. Nugent is since 16 years a skolkurator (seemingly in Esbo) and claims that he had on a few occasions to deal with such ”honour” problems. As to dealing with these problems, he writes in his last paragraph: ”Barnskyddet har alltid varit en resurs. Om det har gällt fullvuxna så finns det skydd att få tillika. Samarbetspartner har förutom barnskyddet varit: SOPU-projektet, Befolkningsförbundet, Förbundet för mänskliga rättigheter (Kitke-projektet), förbundet Monica-naiset, polisen och så vidare.” – How far this is true outside Kehä III is of course still an open question …
Du säger Nana att islams trossystem är extremt förtryckande. Säkert så också, men det viktiga här är att det är fråga om hjärntvätt, på samma sätt som t.ex våra egna laestadianer blir hjärntvättade av sin tro. De fås att tro att de faktiskt inte, på riktigt, är intresserade av t.ex att gå på bio eller titta på teve eller andra syndiga aktiviteter, och de är helt uppriktiga när de säger det (jag har personlig erfarenhet av hur en sån person fungerar i en terapigrupp – hen var så hjärntvättad att hen inte ens visste om och hur hen skulle bli arg när hen provocerades å det grövsta av terapeuten).
Så hjärntvätten fixar effektivt alla problem med jämställdhet, de bara existerar inte och naturligtvis är trossystemet egalitärt, det har säkert ren profeten förkunnat.
As to Islam being egalitär or anything but that, I found it rather instructive to read once all of the Koran (luckily it is not a very thick book to read, though rather boring). When comparing it to the Old Testament (of which the Koran is a very obvious offshoot), I should say that it is clearly more civilization-compatible and also more egalitarian. The problem seems, to me, rather to be the way how Islam is transmitted from one generation to the next. If youngsters are taught how to sing out the Koran (in ways which we know from the liturgy of Christian services) in ”the language of God” (i.e. early medieval Arabic) then it is VERY doubtful how much they actually understand of the text (especially if they speak some other language at home), and it is even doubtful how much their teachers understand of it. As a consequence, already their teachers will, in their teaching, often more rely on the local tradition than on the text. And also the students are, after all, in their daily lives very much more exposed to the local tradition than to that text which they may have serious difficulties to understand. And the consequence of all this may then be that, e.g, Islam in the Middle East (where the traditions are often pretty Old Testament-like) is VERY much stricter, more oppressive and a much more fruitful growing-ground for sexual neuroses (which in turn make for very ”fiery” believers) than, say, the Islam we find in Indonesia (the largest Islamic nation) or among the Tatars of Tatarstan (around Kazan/Russia) or Helsinki. – Altogether, I do agree with the US officer who, on the basis of his Afghanistan experience, said that one should print the Koran in the various local languages and distribute it to the people in Afghanistan. And of course his advice was ignored …
Man kan väl utgå från att andelen unga muslimer som faktiskt läser och reflekterar över koranen inte är större än antalet unga kristna som faktiskt läser och reflekterar över bibeln, dvs en försvinnande minoritet. Dessa två minoriteter är troligen väldigt ense om både etik och moral.
Ett västerländskt ’kristet’ samhälles värdegrund – för att använda en similesisk term – korrelerar för övrigt lika dåligt med bibeln som ett levantiskt ’muslimskt’ samhälles med koranen. Oberoende av historisk period alltså. Men inom kristendomen brände vi ju kättare och häxor och slog ihjäl dem som läste bibeln på fel sätt för bara några hundra år sen. Islam är så pass mycket yngre att de fortfarande håller på med sånt ?
There are regions (in, say, Afghanistan and Pakistan), where ”koran schools” are very many (or even the only ones available or affordable), and even state-run schools can be very Koran-biassed in their teachings (e.g., just recently Turkey was forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools). Thus, I do not really believe that youngsters who have had close contact to the Koran will be such a small minority.
Nor do I believe that the Middle Eastern Islamic zeal will decrease automatically with the passage of time: Lutheranism was greatly helped by kings who saw it as a good chance to grab the considerable property of the chuch in their countries (whereas I do not see similar possibilities in Islamic countries); the preachers have learned to use the electronic media to their advantage (right now a majority of Republican voters in the USA see colleges – and presumably also other higher education – as damaging for the interest of the USA); Islam (and fundamentalist Christianity) will not give up producing sexual neurotics (who are good candidates for terrorist activities); and anyway, as long as the whole social environment is patriarchal while the governments are preventing the teaching of enlightening ideas at school, preachers will continue to be THE authorities. Thus, one should realize that modern science is by and large a uniquely Western European invention and that ideas which are typical for our ideas of enlightenment have very bad conditions under the rule of patriarchal and sexual neurotic authorities. Change will not come by itself, but rather require quite some thought and effort. But giving people the possibility to read the Koran in their own language (as Luther did with the Bible) – and then to make their own ideas about what they have read – may at least be some beginning.