Listhaug warns on nikab in Norway

Minister of Immigration and Integration Sylvi Listhaug ( Progress Party )Oslo.Minister of Immigration and Integration Sylvi Listhaug ( Progress Party ) Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

Immigration and Integration Minister Sylvi Listhaug believes religious garments and symbols like nikab are not suited when applying for employment and and integration in the Norwegian society.

– When you go for a job interview, you certainly will not appear in jogging trousers and caps. Everyone must consider his approach and action. Therefore, you can’t use nikab as well, says the minister to Dagbladet.

Listhaug invites  to the government’s conference on national integration, which will be opened by Prime Minister Erna Solberg in Oslo on Tuesday morning.

– Employers will hardly employ people they can’t see who they are. You can’t work in the shop with a covered face. I doubt customers will find it particularly pleasant, says the Minister of integration.

But she will not interfere on how people dress in their spare time.

– People are free to walk around in jogging trousers or nikab. However, to find work or to perform a job, completely different requirements apply. Therefore, each of us must take into consideration to our surroundings, says Sylvi Listhaug.

General Secretary Ann-Magritt Austenå in NOAS believes that nikab is a marginal problem in Norway, while reluctance to handle pork and alcohol can be a real challenge for some.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today