Make of this what you will


Muslims rage against family planning: "No one should influence how many children you have"
Domestic

18 May 2022

at 11.00

In the debate about the so-called exclusion of non-European women, where you give birth to children and never enter the labor market, family planning has begun to be mentioned as a possible solution. But this is something the women themselves reject.

During the past month, both the Social Democrats and the Democrats in Gothenburg have put forward proposals for family planning.

- I do not place any value on whether a woman chooses to give birth to ten children or no children. But it should be the woman's right to decide. I claim that these women do not do it today, in patriarchal structures such as honor and clan, says Jonas Attenius (S), municipal councilor in Gothenburg, to Göteborgs-Posten .

The Social Democrats believe that the issue of family planning should be investigated within the framework of the municipality's new action plan to stop new recruitment, gang crime and the development of parallel societies.

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In one of Gothenburg's so-called particularly vulnerable areas, Lövgärdet, the non-profit association Tidigt Föräldrastöd works, which is financed by the Västra Götaland region. Above all, they work to support expectant and new parents who are new arrivals or foreign-born. Here they do not think there is a problem and do not want politicians to get involved in their lives.

- We meet many families who tell us that they have several children and people come to them and say: "Why do you have so many children?". I think that's wrong. No one should affect how many children you have, says Saido Mohamed.

The women want more children
It is also rejected that there would be clan structures that mean that women are not allowed to decide for themselves how many children they give birth to. According to Ubah Abdisamad, it is instead the opposite.

- It is the women who prefer to give birth to more children, not the men. It works the other way around.

Society's fault
Another woman believes that it is society that puts a stop to it.

- Most of the people we work with are very keen to get on with their parental leave. They want to be able to work, study, plan. But when they face society, they are not locked in, they get stuck and become long-term unemployed. They do not get the education they want and are forced to stay at home, says Jihad Taha Ismail.

- Then maybe you end up in a situation where you have children again. In the background, they still have that they want to develop, but society resists.

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It must also be about discrimination in the labor market.

- But you blame the immigrants instead. I myself have two children and have been looking for a job for a long time. Every time they saw my dress and shawl, the employers changed, says Ubah Abdisamad.