Mattias Tesfaye, Danish Foreign Affairs and Integration Minister, Danish has caused outrage among the Muslim world for suggesting Imams and community leaders should publicly support the “right” for women to have sex before marriage.

Mattias Tesfaye reportedly said in a Facebook post last month, after meeting with some Muslim leaders: “I asked them very directly if they would say out loud and clear in public that Muslim women, of course, have the right to sex before marriage just like all other women.”

Minister Tesfaye is said to have asserted that “it is your life and your choice. Do not let yourself be ruled by either imams or outdated norms.” referring to women allegedly controlled by Imams and family members.

Hediye Temiz, who at 22 is one of the youngest city council members in Denmark, in the city of Albertslund, said Tesfaye’s approach was misguided.“He wants to solve (Muslim women’s) problems, but I think the way he tries to solve it isn’t the right way,” said Temiz, adding that she joined politics because she was frustrated with the way Muslims were talked about by politicians in a Denmark.

Meanwhile, Halima El Abassi, who advises the Danish government as the chairwoman of the Council of Ethnic Minorities, said Muslim women should decide for themselves and not be spoken about as though they do not have agency. “It should be the girl’s own decision,” she told Al Jazeera. “It’s not the imam’s decision or the minister of foreign affairs’ decision.”

Tesfaye has previously claimed Denmark is witnessing a “comprehensive war of independence”, where young women live in “invisible prisons”, in forced or violent marriages, part of what he terms “negative social control”.

 

Sarjo D Bojang

Source: Al Jazeera