Men from the Middle East and Africa “do not have the same view of gender equality as we have,” the country’s labor and integration minister has claimed
Educating immigrants coming into Sweden about liberal values is essential for combating the growing number of rapes in the country, Swedish Labor and Integration Minister Mats Persson has claimed.
Up to 63% of all those convicted of rape in Sweden between 2000 and 2020 were born in another country or had parents who arrived from abroad, recent research by Lund University has found.
Persson, who was asked to comment on the study during an interview with the Expressen newspaper on Sunday, said that “you cannot close your eyes to the fact that values matter.”
A high number of sexual assaults are being committed by migrants from the Middle East and Africa because those “men… grow up in patriarchal structures where they do not have the same view of gender equality as we have in our liberal Sweden,” the minister explained.
According to his department, 100-hour civic orientation courses are being offered to every foreigner who comes to live in the country.
“We want the education system to focus much more on liberal values, women’s rights, issues of ‘honor violence’ and, of course, also issues of sexuality. And we must not only inform, but also through a test, ensure that people understand what values apply in our country,” he said.
The government is now working to establish if these courses need to be extended and made mandatory, Persson added.
The Swedish authorities must also be “very clear that there are harsh penalties and deportations” for those who commit rape, he said.
“The government’s general orientation is that we want to increase the penalties in Sweden. This is incredibly important, for people to feel that the system is fair,” he explained.
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According to data published by EU’s statistical office Eurostat last year, Sweden had the highest per-capita number of recorded rapes in the bloc in 2022, with 86 such crimes per 100,000 people, followed by Iceland (68.04) and France (53.13).
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