I recently posted quotes from an opinion article written by Mahmoud Aldebe of the Muslim Association of Sweden regarding the demand to let Muslim women be divorced in Sweden according to Muslim law. Here is a translation of the original article he was referring to, written by Mehrdad Darvishpour and Zenia Hellgren, sociologists at Stockholm University.
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Mahmoud Khalfi, president of the Islamic Association and imam in Stockholm has recently expressed himself about women's difficulties in getting divorces approved according to the Muslim faith verdicts in Swedish courts. According to Khalfi, Sweden's imams need more support and resources to strengthen their position in Swedish society.
Khalfi thinks that imams in Sweden should have a right to decide if a divorce is authorized according to Islam, side by side with Swedish laws. At the same time, the president of Sweden's Muslim association, Mahmoud Aldebe, wants to facilitate Swedish Muslims "living according to Swedish and Islamic law". He thinks moreover that the religious courts in Muslim countries "in priciple are like courts in Western countries" and denies that they systematically discriminate against women.
We think that the thought of requiring the implementation of parallel legal systems in a multicultural society builds on a stereotypical and static perception of "culture" , and that it an illusion to find cultural unity among ethnic minorities. That stereotype is often blind to the different perceptions and power relations that exist within ethnic or religious groups. Who defines which living conditions and norms should hold for an ethnic group and specifically for a Swedish Muslim, and which laws should be left behind?
Many women who come from Muslim countries, fight, both in those countries and in Sweden for more power over their own lives and the right to interpret Islam on their own and are hardly served when Swedish society promotes the enforcement of religious laws which explicitly subordinate the woman to the man.
To accept unequal divorce laws for Muslim women - as would never be accepted for any other group of women in Swedish society - is nothing but treachery, a way to show that these women are worth less in the eye of the law.
We think instead that Sweden should work towards having divorce according to Swedish family law for the country's immigrants - regardless of origin - be accepted and recognized in other countries.
Moreover, we suggest to increase resources given to efforts for promoting equality among Swedish Muslim, from a perspective that emphasizes that men also have what to gain from a more equal relation with women.
Not least, the Islamic association, Sweden's Muslim association and all imams active in Sweden have an important function to fill here. A clear standpoint for equality will also lessen the rift between Swedish Muslims and the majority society and show that equality is fully consistent with Islamic belief and practices. Khalfi's and Aldebe's remarks are rather a step in the opposite direction.
Source: City (Swedish)
See also: Sweden: The problems of civil divorce