Listhaug wants ban on hijab in primary school

Hijab on children

Listhaug wants ban on hijab in primary school

Minister of Immigration, Sylvi Listhaug (Frp), proposes to introduce a national ban on the use of hijab in all the country’s elementary schools and kindergartens.

 

The Minister for Immigration is launching the proposal to VG, just before she is going to participate in a debate at the Gospel Center in Østerbo in Østfold on Wednesday, together with among others, Christian Democrat Leader, Knut Arild Hareide.

– When I see young children who are wearing a hijab, I’m saddened. No young child is able to make such a choice on their own. This sexualization of little girls, because they have to wear a hijab so that grown men are not sexually attracted, is foreign to Norwegian culture, says Listhaug.

Big step to forbid

Last autumn, Listhaug first opposed a ban on the use of nikab in educational institutions, before she made an about turn and seconded the motion.

Minister of Education, Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, says that the Conservatives do not want to be a part of the proposal forwarded by Listhaug.

The Conservatives and the Progress Party, in Government, have already decided that we will issue information that will help schools interact with parents, on matters such as hijab. In the Conservatives program we say that we want a ban on face-covering garments like nikab, but there is nothing mentioned on a ban on hijabs. We are therefore not in favour of that.

Neither is the Labour Party’s Deputy, Trond Giske, overjoyed by the proposal.

– We are opposed to hijab used by children, but it’s a big step to forbid it. That is also why, in four years, the Government has not proposed such a ban, he says in a comment to NTB.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today