Young, Black, Swedish – The Minister For Controversy

In a tall, blond government, a small, Burundi-born black woman like Nyamko Sabuni - who is Minister For Integration and Equality and seeks to become Sweden's first black prime minister - will stand out. It is also the former refugee and center-right politician’s outspoken views that have demanded attention in Sweden. She wants a ban on the veil for under-15s and compulsory gynecological checks for all schoolgirls to protect against genital mutilation masquerading as “female circumcision”. Her views have led to death threats and round-the-clock protection in Europe’s most tolerant country.

Being appointed minister provoked a petition signed by 50 Muslim organizations declaring that she “breathed populism and Islamophobia”. Minister Sabuni, age 38, whose mother was a Muslim but who describes herself as “not religious”, is unrepentant. “Arranged marriage is not something recommended by Islam,” she said. “Nor is genital mutilation. Many people say this is our tradition, our religion. But it is unacceptable, whatever the reason. I will not be scared into silence. I will never accept that women and girls are oppressed in the name of religion.”

Sweden has been good to Minister Sabuni. It welcomed her father and his seven children as political refugees from Congo when she was 12. She studied at Uppsala University, became a member of the Swedish Parliament at age 32, and married a native Swedish travel agent with whom she has twin boys. Her views were formed by the way that her Christian father found work quickly and helped her family to integrate into Swedish life.

Minister Sabuni has never made any secret of her ambition to be Sweden’s first black Prime Minister. Some see parallels between her and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born refugee who renounced Islam, became a Dutch parliamentarian and spoke out against the religion, only to relocate in the United States after a row about her asylum application. “We are compared because we are both young, we are both black, we are both politicians,” Minister Sabuni said. “The mission of Ayaan is to reform Islam. My mission is not to reform Islam, my mission is to say that certain traditions are unacceptable. ”

Minister Sabuni believes that Sweden must move away from its generous welfare benefits culture to improve social cohesion and ethnic integration as well as boost the economy. Some also argue that this country of nine million has already taken its fair share of immigrants, leading to the social tensions behind Muslim rioting last month in Malmo. Minister Sabuni believes that the solution is not fewer migrants but more jobs. The Government pays as much as three-quarters of the starting salary for an immigrant in his or her first job. In another very Swedish solution, she is also pushing for a “Guarantee of Activities” program that will match the jobless with useful social tasks, such as reading to pupils or helping the elderly.

She wants the rest of Europe to adopt the same generous approach to asylum-seekers as Sweden, which has taken more Iraqis than any other European Union country – an acceptance rate of 90% compared with Britain’s 12%. “They come to Sweden because they know there is a positive policy. We would rather see the EU start acting the way we do than we have to act like they do”, said Minister Sabuni. Minister Sabuni added that her demand to ban the veil for schoolgirls was a contribution to a debate that she believes that Sweden needs before it reaches the same level of anxiety about ethnic integration as Britain. “The mentality in Britain has been very tolerant and accepting but now you have a problem that suddenly you realised, gosh, there are some values we have to defend,” she said.