Swedish Cabinet To Undergo FGM To Show Respect Before Visit To Muslim Countries

“Just as we want the immigrants from those countries in Sweden to feel welcome, we want want to make our hosts comfortable when we go there.”

Stockholm, March 6 – Following a trip to Iran last year marked by the female ministers of Sweden’s government donning headscarves in a nod to local mores enforced by the mullahs, a similar move will occur later this year when the Scandinavian nation’s female cabinet members undergo genital cutting as a gesture of respect for local culture before setting out on a visit to six Muslim countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, a government spokeswoman announced today.

Svermei Kletors, a spokeswoman for the cabinet of Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, convened a press conference Sunday afternoon to alert the media to the development. Ms. Kletors informed journalists that in advance of a July visit to Malaysia, Indonesia, Iraq, Egypt, and Somalia, the six women cabinet ministers scheduled to participate in the visit will have various parts of their external genitalia removed, in keeping with common local customs in the countries they plan to visit.

“It seems only fitting that after leading female European political figures such as EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini and our own Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström have worn the hijab when visiting Iran, we must take the same respectful approach in our handling of state visits elsewhere,” explained Ms. Kletors.

“Just as we want the immigrants from those countries in Sweden to feel welcome, we want want to make our hosts comfortable when we go there,” she continued. The genital mutilation is slated for late May and early June, according to a press release issued at the conference.

Experts noted that the move would carry numerous legal problems, as FGM is illegal in Sweden, but that in the interest of smooth foreign relations, authorities might elect not to enforce this series of violations. “There’s something of a permissiveness in terms of FGM right now in any case,” observed Frie Ferall, legal counsel for a migrants’ rights NGO. “Police and prosecutors are loath to go after migrant criminals of any sort, and elected officials have adopted a policy of appeasement and denial. It would dovetail with those sensibilities to have the scheduled FGM procedures ignored by police and prosecutors, or otherwise explained as outside their jurisdiction, given the immunity the ministers enjoy while in office.”

A previous Swedish expression of tolerance along these lines was made manifest in September 2016 with the launch of a program to recruit volunteers among Swedish women who agreed to be raped by migrants to help the latter feel welcome in the country.

Please support our work through Patreon.