For Azizul Raheem and Shalwati Nurshal who have not held any one of their four children in their arms for close to sixty days, I could not have imagined in a million years how that feeling is like. Just like how mind boggling it is to be held in detention, under custody by a foreign authority in a foreign land for spanking the hand of your very own child for religious reason. This is a definite clash of culture.
I spoke to a Nigerian man in Sweden recently who shares the same fate. This father of three and his wife moved to Norway in 2011 with visions of a greener pasture. Little did they know that it was just a mirage. Their children were taken away from them by the social welfare service in February 2013, after allegedly reported for kicking, punching and smacking their children.
During investigation, he admitted to have spanked his children with his palm, only to discipline them – not abuse. He explained, in Nigeria, this is how it is.
Today, it has been almost a year, with his wife; they visit their children once a week for only three hours, in a foster home, under close supervision. And they will have to continue to do so until the social welfare authorities find them both fit to have their children back home again.
I also spoke to the Nordic Committee for Human Rights. The president shed some light on the severity of these series of ordeal that parents faced in Sweden. That children been taken away from the comfort of their homes in the name of child protection. Foreign or local, whatever your nationality is, it is a non-issue.
According to an article by Daily Mail UK, the Swedish Ombudsman for Children, Sweden became the first country in the world to outlaw corporal punishment in 1979. The intention of this Swedish legislation, was not to lead parents to lose their children, the purpose is preventative – to protect children.
It is a breach of law to spank your children. There is no tolerance for parents who hit their children in Sweden.
Back home, news of a two year girl found lifeless in an empty house got me distraught. What calls for such condemned cruelty be upon an innocent toddler? When thousands of miles away we have parents and laws go beyond boundaries to protect children?
Al-fatihah. Nursyafiqah Abdullah 2012-2014.
