Home PodcastJulie Alli Mother flees Sweden persecution for social services activism

Mother flees Sweden persecution for social services activism

by Zahid Jadwat

Zeinab Ltaif, a mother of six, had to flee the Scandinavian country after participating in protests against its social services. [Picture: Sydsvenskan]

 

Sweden frequently takes the top spots when it comes to family-friendly policies and child welfare in the world, but the stories of minority families shattered by social services’ intervention paints a heartbreaking picture.

Zeinab Ltaif, a mother of six, had to flee the Scandinavian country after participating in protests against its social services. Though her own story of an uprooted life is as unfortunate as any other, it is the heart wrenching story of her sister’s family that belies Sweden’s top-ranking.

Speaking from an undisclosed location. Ltaif recalled the incident that broke her sister’s home. She said social services in the country continued to remove children from ‘abusive’ homes without allowing the parents any opportunity to explain.

“When it comes to a complaint and workers from the social services, they don’t give you this chance to prove that you are a good mother and father,” she said, almost hopelessly adding, “You have no chance; you cannot win. You have lost. You cannot get back your children.”

She had repeatedly seen families being torn apart in Sweden with no legal grounds or evidence. She began joining the demonstrations after her sister’s children were taken and consistently advocated against what was being done to children.

 

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Broken homes in Sweden

Her sister, a mother of five, has had her children taken by authorities without any opportunity to explain the situation. The children have allegedly been denied contact with their family.

“When she was screaming, they had to grab her because the others [would] wake up when [they heard their] sister screaming. To give her the medication, they grabbed her and that was it,” said Ltaif.

Things took a sudden turn after her sister took the children to preschool, when a teacher enquired about the daughter’s wellbeing. One of them innocently mentioned the morning’s events, prompting social services to swoop in and remove them from the home.

Contact since then has been scarce, leaving a family shattered and apart.

“The children were taken. The sisters live a few hours away from each other; they don’t see each other. My sister has seen just three of her daughters two times, just six weeks ago, and the youngest one has never seen her again,” said Ltaif.

Ltaif argued that what most of the families experienced went against Swedish and European laws, but she soon wound up on the receiving end of accusations of spreading disinformation. It wasn’t long before she was taunted for being an “extremist” and “Islamist”.

She said while Sweden’s rigid protection laws applied to families across the board, Muslim families were “the easiest target”.

Islamophobia in Sweden has been the subject of heated discussion in recent weeks after an extremist Swedish-Danish politician burnt a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Julie Allie and Zeinab Ltaif spoke about the trauma inflicted upon children in instances where Swedish authorities took children without any real basis. Watch the full discussion here.


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