Norway offers gender sensitivity lessons to refugees

[hinduwoman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/w...ants-a-lesson-in-how-to-treat-women.html?_r=0

When he first arrived in Europe, Abdu Osman Kelifa, a Muslim asylum seeker from the Horn of Africa, was shocked to see women in skimpy clothes drinking alcohol and kissing in public. Back home, he said, only prostitutes do that, and in locally made movies couples “only hug but never kiss.”Confused, Mr. Kelifa volunteered to take part in a pioneering and, in some quarters, controversial program that seeks to prevent sexual and other violence by helping male immigrants from societies that are largely segregated or in which women show neither flesh nor public affection to adapt to more open European societies.
Fearful of stigmatizing migrants as potential rapists and playing into the hands of anti-immigrant politicians, most European countries have avoided addressing the question of whether men arriving from more conservative societies might get the wrong idea once they move to places where it can seem as if anything goes.
But, with more than a million asylum seekers arriving in Europe this year, an increasing number of politicians and also some migrant activists now favor offering coaching in European sexual norms and social codes.
...

The goal is that participants will “at least know the difference between right and wrong,” said Nina Machibya, the Sandnes center’s manager.
A course manual sets out a simple rule that all asylum seekers need to learn and follow: “To force someone into sex is not permitted in Norway, even when you are married to that person.”
It skirts the issue of religious differences, noting that while Norway has long been largely Christian, it is “not religion that sets the laws” and that, whatever a person’s faith, “the rules and laws nevertheless have to be followed.”
In Denmark, lawmakers are pushing to have such sex education included in mandatory language classes for refugees. The German region of Bavaria, the main entry point to Germany for asylum seekers, is already experimenting with such classes at a shelter for teenage migrants in the town of Passau.
...

Mr. Kelifa, the African asylum seeker, said he still had a hard time accepting that a wife could accuse her husband of sexual assault. But he added that he had learned how to read previously baffling signals from women who wear short skirts, smile or simply walk alone at night without an escort.
“Men have weaknesses and when they see someone smiling it is difficult to control,” Mr. Kelifa said, explaining that in his own country, Eritrea, “if someone wants a lady he can just take her and he will not be punished,” at least not by the police.
Norway, he said, treats women differently. “They can do any job from prime minister to truck driver and have the right to relax” in bars or on the street without being bothered, he added.
Mr. Isdal, the Stavanger psychologist, said refugees, particularly those traumatized by war, represent a “risk group” that is not predestined to violent crime but that does need help to cope with a new and alien environment.
The program he helped design focuses on getting newly arrived refugees to open up about their attitudes toward sex, through discussions in small groups supervised by a monitor, usually a native Norwegian. A manual prepared for the course includes sections on “Norwegian laws and values,” as well as violence against children and women.
A class held on Wednesday in Lunde, a village southwest of Oslo, focused on differing perceptions of “honor” and how violence that might be seen as honorable in some cultures is shameful and also illegal in Norway.

here are real efforts to inegrete refugees in mainstream.

 

[TSwizzle]

What a sad state of affairs.

 

[thebeave]

I've always kinda scoffed at the whole notion of having to "teach men not to rape", but maybe there's something to it.

 

[aeebee50]

Price of civilization.

 

[bigfield]

Reads like a well-thought-out solution to the problem of refugees who have little idea of how to behave in a liberal Western society.

 

[credoconsolans]

Reads like a well-thought-out solution to the problem of refugees who have little idea of how to behave in a liberal Western society.

Agree.

This should be required in every Western country accepting refugees.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Reads like a well-thought-out solution to the problem of refugees who have little idea of how to behave in a liberal Western society.

Yup. Training of this sort should be mandatory for immigrants and refugees--teach them the cultural norms of the society into which they are moving so they understand that what they are seeing is normal.

 

[Bar-Jesus]

tbh, can't see why the immigrants should have to behave any different now they've moved countries, I mean it would be racist surely to accuse them of being rapists, right??

 

[whichphilosophy]

Reads like a well-thought-out solution to the problem of refugees who have little idea of how to behave in a liberal Western society.

Yup. Training of this sort should be mandatory for immigrants and refugees--teach them the cultural norms of the society into which they are moving so they understand that what they are seeing is normal.

This could follow an exam. In some European countries you pass a test to see if you have some knowledge of the societal requirements.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Perhaps it's just the wording of the story but it seems the program addresses the problem by pointing out the differences in sexual norms and societal codes. I think it first and foremost needs to address equality between the sexes and then, that these sexual norms and societal codes are a result of equality.

 

[Bar-Jesus]

It would help a lot though if Western women didn't dress like prostitutes, I mean no surprise really that many of these immigs think they are 'up for it'!

And to be fair, when I see all the young western women, dressed like local sluts, coming out to my adopted Asian country, I'm not too surprised when I read about rapes in the papers - that kind of thing, you see it's a two way street

 

[Keith&Co.]

It would help a lot though if Western women didn't dress like prostitutes, I mean no surprise really that many of these immigs think they are 'up for it'!

And that would be why it's not 'racist' to suggest that immigrants need them some learning.

Just because you (or anyone) can see skin in a place you (or anyone) would consider 'private' by their personal cultural standards, that does not mean that the woman is intending the display as invitation, or permission, or advertising. It's not a two-way-street if the status of sex worker is entirely in your head.

And whether she's 'dressed like a prostitute' or even actually IS a prostitute, she should still have the right to say 'No' if she doesn't want to have sex.

Unless it's true that men do not have any sort of self-control once the hard-on relay is energized? That it's the woman's 'fault' for exciting the man?

 

[Bar-Jesus]

So why don't the western lib women who come over to my part of the world, respect the cultural norms here? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me, so why the F should the immigs care what they want in Sweden or wherever...

 

[Keith&Co.]

So why don't the western lib women who come over to my part of the world, respect the cultural norms here? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me, so why the F should the immigs care what they want in Sweden or wherever...

BJ, imagine that you travel to a city where, unbeknownst to you, the exact shoe you choose to wear has become the official uniform of male prostitute furries.

Someone orders you to put on a wolf fursuit and bang him while he's in a sheep fursuit.
Do you think you're under an obligation to bang him because you're inadvertently advertising your services?

Should you buy new shoes to walk around the place in, or would you prefer to be able to visit the place while dressed comfortably by your own standards?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

So why don't the western lib women who come over to my part of the world, respect the cultural norms here? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me, so why the F should the immigs care what they want in Sweden or wherever...

I doubt that there's a single Western woman who came over to your part of the world, kidnapped a woman and then dressed her up like a whore and forced her to parade throught the streets. Instead, they just did what they wanted to do and left everybody else to do what they wanted to do.

It's the same with these immigrants and refugees. Nobody's telling them that they need to dress up like whores and parade around the streets themselves, they're just telling them that if someone else wants to dress up like a whore and parade around the streets, that's her own damn business and not their damn business.

 

[bigfield]

It would help a lot though if Western women didn't dress like prostitutes, I mean no surprise really that many of these immigs think they are 'up for it'!

Our western cultural values include the freedom to dress in revealing clothing.

That's not going to change just because some immigrants can't understand it.

And it isn't going to change because you prudes don't like it.

Complaining about women in revealing clothing is very un-European and very un-libertarian. Leave that bullshit to the religious fundamentalists of the world and the old fuddy-duddies.

- - - Updated - - -

So why don't the western lib women who come over to my part of the world, respect the cultural norms here? Kind of hypocritical if you ask me, so why the F should the immigs care what they want in Sweden or wherever...

Considering that everything that you write is bullshit, I highly doubt Western liberal women are infringing on the liberties of anyone in whatever country you live in.

 

[Jarhyn]

I dunno. If he did his research right, maybe he went there specifically to score some hot male on furry male action. Maybe wolf dick is his thing since he obviously hates women and I question the humanity of his posts...

I don't judge. Let him slutp down some fox jizz if that's his thing, and maybe make some dosh on the side.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I dunno. If he did his research right, maybe he went there specifically to score some hot male on furry male action. Maybe wolf dick is his thing

Well, my point was, and I thought it was clearly stated, that he did not know of this aspect of the culture he was visiting. Maybe he wants to be the sheep, or would want to sheep if he knew the option was available.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Yup. Training of this sort should be mandatory for immigrants and refugees--teach them the cultural norms of the society into which they are moving so they understand that what they are seeing is normal.

This could follow an exam. In some European countries you pass a test to see if you have some knowledge of the societal requirements.

Agreed--exams should always be an alternative to training except in situations where an exam can't reasonably be done.

 

[Jarhyn]

Well, my point is that life is an adventure. One that may even involve sexy wolf dicks, that may never be experienced if not for taking a risk. Sexy, sexy wolf dicks.

But remember, yiffing does not cum without consequences...

(Don't worry, Bar-Jesus, we support your life choices. You go get that yiff!)