You might have heard of the recent film made by the actor of Winter Soldier and Cristian Mungiu (Not Radu Jude as one other reported. And Radu Jude is not to be confused with Radu Gyr). To those who don’t watch Romanian news, it might seem to be a work of the imagination. To those who do watch Romanian news, you might wonder why the film was set in Norway instead of Sweden. Because the one story it seems to be based upon is happening right now, in Sweden. But apparently, it is based on something that happened in Norway.
Norway and Sweden have not been together since 1905. And Sweden has separated two Romanian parents from their children for fewer years than that, but it still has been quoted as “years”, which must seem like an eternity to them.
Let’s get to the Swedish story. The two older children, at school, allegedly made a complaint about their parents. It was taken seriously, as it should have been. We have a few cases of real abuse among Romanian expats, one case in Italy which resulted in a murder-suicide this week, and other in the same country where two innocent people died. So, it makes sense to investigate every claim and take is seriously.
But the kids in Sweden later took this claim back, and an investigation found that the parents had done nothing wrong. It seemed everyone agreed that the girls were better off with their parents.
Kind of like that Chinese show, where a kid accuses his mother of being a kidnapper, and she is surrounded by an angry crowd in the supermarket. Then the father comes, clears up the misunderstanding, the no-longer-angry crowd laughs and disperses, and everyone goes off happy to a roller coaster ride.
However, real life isn’t always so simple as C-drama. With the Romanian parents in Sweden cleared of all allegations, the Swedish authorities decided to invent new charges. The parents were labelled as “religious extremists” because the family went to church three times a week and didn’t allow their little girls to wear makeup.
To me, and every normal person out there, it seems that some powerful people in Sweden are ideological extremists. Imagine taking a muslim girl away from her parents because she prayed five times a day, or a Sikh child away because the parents didn’t believe in cutting hair after a certain time. There are already those who claim that Jewish circumsion is a form of “child abuse.” When we compare the Orthodox traditions to those of other areas, we see that they are very mild in comparison.
The Swedish institutional change is not only a danger for Romanians, it is not a danger only for Christians, it is a danger for all parents with any set of morals or beliefs at all who take their families to Sweden. It is especially worrying that Christians are a target here in Europe, as Christians are already persecuted in other parts of the globe where they are a minority. If Christians become targetted where they are traditionally a majority as well, then will anywhere be safe?
The Romanian parliament unanimously passed a resolution that the girls should be repatriated to Romania. Parliamentarians across party lines spoke up for the family, for the charter of human rights. Will Sweden comply?
Hopefully, this resolution means that Romania will respect the rights of expat families, and no such event will take place here.