Swedish parliamentarian Leila Ali Alami, the first veiled Muslim woman to enter the Swedish parliament, came to Sweden at the age of two, after her family fled the civil war in Somalia. She will appear in parliament after her surprise victory in opinion polls this fall and promised to represent the target people because of the waves of hostility and migration. "My election has caused many reactions from racists," she says while in the Green Party office in Stockholm. "They were not really ready for that, but I'm here."
The election of 30-year-old Alami represents the other side of the elections dominated by immigration issues, in which the rate of the far right has risen. This woman embraces the issues of Angered suburb, a suburb with a large immigrant population, which has been home for 28 years, including unemployment, segregation and apartheid.
"If you do not live there or do not spend one day with these people, you can not represent them," she says. "The only people who were not surprised by my victory are those who know that the suburb needs its representatives. .
Swedish citizens were aware of racial discrimination when youths demonstrated in northern Stockholm in early 2013, setting fire to cars and schools, clashing with police, saying they were angry at police racism and felt second-class citizens, even though they were born in the country.
Protest movements have been emerging since then, masked youths armed with Molotov cocktails set fire to 80 cars in the Gothenburg suburb. The right wing of the Swedish Democratic Party soon linked these events to immigration. A scientific issue is the circumstances in which most people are of immigrant origin. "The Swedish Democratic Party says that all the wrongdoing here is caused by immigrants, because Sweden opens the door to many people to the country, but that's pure fantasy." "I want to say instead that this is a national issue. Many people do not have jobs, they live in isolated areas, which makes them far from being part of society so that they feel dignity. They are part of a larger body. We need more. Equality in this country, and strict laws against discrimination and racism ».
"It's too early to say who voted in favor of my science, but the election of a liberal young woman points to fundamental changes," says Jonas Hinfors, a political science professor at the University of Gothenburg. "There is something interesting, a new trend, it did not play with the immigrant card, it was not the case, we did not say we Muslims should join hands with each other, but instead refer to school issues, apartheid, jobs, All the important issues for people living in the suburbs, because they came from there, where my science also embodies what you are talking about. "He describes this as something unusual.
- represents a scientific election, aged 30
Years, the other side of the election that
It was dominated by immigration issues, which rose
During which the rate of the extreme right votes.