Hijab Activists Meet with Sweden's Justice Minister
Sweden's justice minister on Tuesday met with activists who convinced thousands of women to wear headscarves this week to protest an alleged attack on a Muslim woman who wore a hijab.
"We tried to say that there is structural discrimination ...but (Justice Minister Beatrice Ask) kept referring to individual responsibilities," Foujan Rouzbeh, one of the organizers, said at a press conference after the meeting.
"I also said that under this government, we've gotten the impression that that this type of crime has increased," she added.
A heavily pregnant Swedish woman wearing a hijab on Friday reported being assaulted as she approached her car in the Stockholm suburb of Farsta.
The man who attacked her made a reference to the veil she was wearing, she said. Police are currently searching for witnesses to the incident, which is being treated as a hate crime.
Her claims prompted an outpouring of solidarity on social media sites, with some 4,000 Twitter users of different faiths posting pictures of themselves wearing headscarves on Monday, according to activists.
Leftist politicians and celebrities were among those supporting the campaign.
On Instagram, just over 130 people had posted pictures of themselves with their heads covered on Tuesday, and on Facebook around 8,600 people had joined the group "The hijab appeal."
A demonstration was scheduled to be held in Stockholm on Thursday to support Muslim women's right to wear the hijab in public.
Activists who attended the meeting with Justice Minister Ask said they had also demanded that a commission look into the problem of violence against the women who wear it.
The minister told tabloid Expressen that it was "important to listen," but declined to wear a headscarf herself.
over 10 years
European countries are not ''Christian''.. They are secular countries that accept all religions equally, or at least it is what they claim
over 10 years
@Morpheus .you are right about secular but the base and heritage are christian .@anonymetexasusa thank you for getting my point . i gave both of you a thumbs up , because u made your statements without insults like others do to divert from the point at hand.
peace
i want to know if i wear my cross in saudi arabia and not follow their rules and not wear a veil, what would happen to me? oh yeah , i will be thrown in jail and then deported. i love the double standards , they come to a christian country that they chose to live in and they want more rights then what they can get in their own countries, why cant they do this in the arab gulf countries? oh yeah because the minute she tweets she will be in jail and then she will know the meaning of discrimination from her own muslim kings . i dont agree with hate crimes and such, but i am trying to show the difference, between europe and the gulf, europe will listen to ur demands and try to fix the problem , i cant say the same about the oil rich countries. my personal opinion ,
peace to all nations and all religions