The Swedish Moderate Party has called for a new law to be passed to criminalise anyone in the country’s heavily migrant-populated no-go zones from acting as “morality police”.
The Moderates have called for the criminalisation of so-called morality police to combat the growing presence of ‘honour culture’ in the troubled suburbs, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Both the Moderate party’s legal spokesman Tomas Tobé and Jessica Polfjärd, the party’s gender equality and integration policy spokesman, made the proposals on Tuesday demanding measures be taken to combat the pressures of honour culture.
The first proposal would see the criminalisation of anyone thought to be employing an “unlawful restriction of freedom” within the rules of honour culture and could see a prison sentence of up to three years.
“Morality police” in migrant suburbs who attempt to police what women wear and how to behave could also face prison time under a new law.
“There are people who choose to limit women’s freedom in Sweden. They will be met with a sentence and with imprisonment, but also in some cases expulsion,” Tomas Tobé said.
Some Swedish feminists have already complained about the enforcement of morality by men in the suburbs with Zeliha Dagli, a former Left Party politician, moving out of the Stockholm suburb of Husby last year specifically citing “morality police” as the reason.
Tobé added that the party would also like to conduct a survey among the migrant-background communities in the suburbs to gather knowledge on its frequency and what forms it takes to help police when enforcing the new law.
According to some sources, the number of young people living under the pressure of honour culture in Sweden could be as high as 240,000 young girls and boys.