Are Muslim Women Trapped in Marriages in Denmark?
by Judith Bergman • March 4, 2020 at 5:00 am
"We don't have specific courts for Muslims... the essence of Danish society is that we have courts that apply to everyone... There are many democratic Muslims, who lead normal lives and are well integrated in Danish society.... I know it is easier said than done, but then we as a society must support them." — Minister of Integration Mattias Tesfaye, Berlingske Tidende, February 2, 2020.
One imam, Mostafa Chendid, estimates that 2,000-3000 Muslim women in Denmark are trapped in Islamic marriages they cannot get out of.
"It is a big problem and many men hold the women hostage in marriages they do not want. They won't accept a divorce from a Danish court -- only from a religious one", he said. "I know women who have tried in vain for ten years to find an imam that will accept their divorce... 80-90 % of the imams will not recognize that a divorce from a Danish court is also valid... And at the same time, the women's husbands and families tell them that they are not divorced until they have the imams' approval." — Imam Mostafa Chendid, Kristeligt Dagblad, January 16, 2020.
It was four years ago that Danish television first exposed sharia councils and imams that help keep Muslim women in abusive marriages and in parallel societies. How is it possible that Danish politicians are still "shocked"?
In March 2016, a three-part television documentary, "The Mosques Behind the Veil," was aired on Danish TV2. The documentary sent two young Muslims undercover, as Fatma and Muhammed, to a number of "parallel" Muslim societies in Denmark.
For the purpose of the documentary, Fatma was given a personal cover story -- based on real-life dilemmas -- for which she would seek advice from the different imams: Her husband was violent, and she did not wish to have sex with him. She could not get pregnant and his family had found a second wife for him. All the Danish imams with whom she consulted in the documentary told her to put up with the violence. When she pleaded for divorce at a sharia council in the Fredens mosque in Århus, Denmark's second largest city, the imams there refused and told her -- ten times -- that she must go back to her husband and try again.
