Just before Christmas we have visited the Parliament situated in the Christiansborg Palace. A member of the Parliament, Fatma Oktem, invited our organization to the excursion around the Parliament and a discussion of problems which are of great importance for women from ethnical minorities.
It was a pleasure to meet such an enthusiastic and strong woman who can inspire other people. Fatma told us about her own way into the politics. It was very interesting, because her example can be important for us. From our point of view, it’s becoming a big problem for the Danish society that many Danish politicians come to the Parliament from the particular political circles and groups. The usual way for the new Danish politicians starts in the youth organizations, gymnasium’s councils etc. and leads straight to the Parliament. You can actually call them as “political elite”: those, who are so far away from the ordinary life. Maybe that’s why Fatma’s example is a big inspiration for us: she has come to the politics as an adult and she doesn’t have a big political background behind her. She knows people’s needs from her own experience, but not from the mass media or researches. May be that’s why it was very easy for us to talk to her about the big consequences foreign women face because of nowadays rules of receiving a residence permit.
Foreigner’s law treats family reunited women as the potential cheaters. Foreign women, who immigrate to Denmark to get married to a man who turns out to be violent, have a risk to face a dilemma: to be exposed to violence or to be sent out of the country.
These rules influence also the situation with the job for foreigners. It’s proved that the best way to receive a job and show ones skills is to work with a subsidized wage. But foreigners are afraid to get this kind of wage because the subsidized wage is a kind of help from the state, which could prevent them from receiving a permanent residence permit in the future.
At the meeting with Fatma we also asked questions concerning women who immigrated to Denmark in an old age. We have such members in our organization and we want to help them. They have learnt Danish very well, but they’ve never had an opportunity to work because of their age. This means that according to the rules they will never receive a permanent residence permit, though, as a rule, they are married and have very good economical situation in their families. If a family supplies itself and doesn’t demand anything from the society, there should be a possibility in a civilized and developed country to let its own citizens’ spouses and other foreigners with the legal permit to receive a permanent residence permit after certain number of years staying in Denmark. It could give more safety against being sent out of the country in the case of divorce, death etc.
We have encouraged Fatma, as the equality spokeswoman in the biggest party, to struggle for the change of nowadays rules so it could be easier for example for family reunited women to go away from the violent husband.
As the organization which consists of women with different ethnical background we struggle a lot for getting more politicians with an ethnic minority background. We think that the Danish society could get profit, if the Parliament and municipal councils could reflect people living in Denmark better.
The most important at the meeting was, what we heard from Fatma: “We, women, can when we want!”
Tusind tak for sidst. Jeg håber på et møde, hvor vi har længere tid til spørgsmål/svar/debat/diskussion.
Tak til Fatma for rundvisningen og superinspirerende debat!
Tak til Fatma og Verdens Kvinder for en spændende aften med en rundvisning i Folketinget og en inspirerende historie om at gøre det, der driver én allermest. Fatma er et flot eksempel på en kvinde og et menneske, der går forrest. Hun har en tyrkisk baggrund, men har valgt at blive en dansk politiker. Hun er et familiemenneske, men har turdet hele vejen for at opfylde sine drømme, på trods af det afsavn, hun har, når hun skal bo så langt væk fra familien. Fatma vil helt sikkert bane vejen for en ny dansk politik med mere rummelighed og åbenhed, og det er jeg meget glad for. Aftenen var også inspirerende i den forstand, at Fatma åbent har fortalt om sin vej til politik, og på den måde vist os, at hvis vi har lyst til at gå ind i dansk politik – så kan vi også!
Tak for en spændende aften. “Hvis hun kan, så kan jeg også” – er Fatmas motto. Og skal være vores fælles princip. Dog kræver det at alle, også de udenlandske kvinder, har mulighed til at vælge. Vælge et liv uden fysisk, psykisk og økonomisk vold, uden at få inddraget sin opholdstilladelse. Derfor skal vi fortsætte vores kamp for udenlandske kvinders rettigheder og ligestilling i det danske samfund. Ligestilling på arbejdsmarked. Ligestilling i FAMILIEN. Den sidste kan og skal opnås ved både ændring af de (u)moralske holdninger bland nogle danske politiker og nogle danske mænd, og ændring af lovgivning.
Alt er muligt.
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