Sweden at the UN

Sweden is on the United Nations Security Council, and for the first time, I finally saw them broadcast on the BBC Arabic. It was very exciting.

The man staring at his notes is Carl Skau. He is from the Swedish contingent at the UN. 

Here he is again, paying very close attention:

In this picture, there are actually two Swedish people! One is the person behind the 'Sweden' sign. The other is the person at the very end of the table. That is Staffan de Mistura. He is giving a report on the very bad and sad conditions in Syria.

The BBC Arabic was talking about how Sweden and Kuwait were trying to get a 1-month ceasefire in Syria.

Later, they talked to a UN expert called Abdelhamid Siyam. I've caught him on the BBC Arabic many times before. He was saying that Russia doesn't like this ceasefire idea, because it would apply to the Syrian government and I guess the "official" rebel forces; the completely lawless militant groups operating in Syria would totally ignore it.

My best tips for your Fulbright-National Geographic Application!

My application didn't move on to the semi-finals. However, I have notes from seven different Fulbright-NatGeo webinars, as well as all my application material posted here. As a favor to you just starting your application, let's go through the official webinar advice and compare it to my application to see where you could do better.

My application

Here's the summary of my proposal:

"I will undertake a series of animated film projects at schools and libraries in six locations in Sweden to discover how working together on common challenges builds social cohesion. The projects will intimately involve children in the narration, illustration, and animation of simple kids’ stories focused on environmental issues. The children will be drawn from all backgrounds, and I will tell a story of how these projects promote community building with immigrants and refugees."

 
You can read more in depth here: 
Personal statement
Statement of grant purpose

Now, let's go through it step by step!

Writing style 

David Braun from National Geographic said during a Q&A webinar: "The way you write is judged very harshly. Writing needs to be clear, crisp, no grammatical errors. Poor writing throws you in the non-select pile."

So, read my application, and for the love of God, no matter what else you may do, don't write like me. Let my application stand as an example of how not to write.

New

During at least 3 webinars, they stressed that they are looking for something very new: "fresh", "unique", "creative", "inventive", that "hasn't been done before."

My application was all about doing animations with kids, which definitely hasn't been done before. So I advise you to pick something new, but make sure your level of 'new' stays far away from where my level of 'new' so clearly transgressed. Does that clear it up?

A kinder, trusting world

Vincent Pickett from the State Department said during two webinars that your application should "break down barriers", help create a "peaceful, prosperous planet", help "humanize each other", and be "working for a future peaceful planet that we can all share."

Read my application carefully, find all the times that I talked about these topics, and understand that will not be enough for you. In fact, that's not even semi-finalist standards. Maybe stay away from the words "kinder" and "trusting".

Community engagement

During one webinar, they had fellowship alumni come in and give us their tips. They mentioned that some journalists will go to a foreign country, take a few pictures, and then run away. David Braun from National Geographic echoed that in a later webinar: "What will be the benefits for the community, and the wider world? You don't want to just come in, photograph people, and leave."

My project had the involvement of local kids baked into every step; it had the participation of their parents when each animation was finished. When I compared my project to all the previous projects, I would say that widespread community engagement was far more intrinsic to my project than any others. You can compare and decide for yourself.

So, they want you to engage the community; but just don't overdo it. Good to keep in mind as you write your application.

Digital portfolio

My samples included videos of finished animations that I made with kids. Logical choice since that's what my proposal was about. Because these videos are on YouTube, I'm able to access viewership statistics. I can even see what states viewers are from. I noticed that from October to December, there was not a single view of the pertinent videos from any of the states where are located the colleges at which the 11-member Fulbright-National Geographic review panel work.

So I don't think they looked at my digital portfolio at all. Maybe at best they skimmed the first page of the grant proposal. Maybe they look at your name and decide they don't want to read the rest; or maybe they look at where you're from and give up from there. Who knows?

Passion

From at least two webinars: "Your passion should come through."

I was passionate enough about my project that before I ever heard about this fellowship, I had already done it small-scale three times, twice in the US, once in Sweden. I found the classes and libraries to work with, I came up with the idea on my own, I found time while doing my PhD to pull the projects off, and I spent my own money drawn from a student budget for the plane ticket and rooming in Sweden.

Better make sure that your level of passion is about 100 times greater, maybe even 1000 times greater, because what I showed was paltry. Definitely not semi-final standards.

"Every moment of your life led to this"

The same fellowship alumni also said that you should demonstrate that "every moment of your life has been leading to this grant. All your life experiences added up to this. All they have to do is fund you to make something awesome happen."

I challenge anyone to read my personal statement and conclude that wasn't true for me; so I caution that the advice given is not foolproof. Maybe you should, maybe you shouldn't follow it.

Feasible

On at least two webinars, they stressed that your project can't be a fantasy. You have to demonstrate that it's doable. I've done every step of my project before, multiple times, but that's not good enough. I hope you who are applying now have something far better up your sleeve.

Language skills

They suggest speaking the language of your host country. I do, but that is after all not even semi-finalist standards. I probably needed to win the grand prize for the Sweden-wide "Best Swedish Essay" competition for them to consider me.

Be the best to tell the story

Vincent Pickett from the State Department says: your application has to make clear "how you fit into the story, and why you're the best to tell it."

In my case, I understand that the world is chock-full of Americans with Swedish backgrounds and another immigrant background, who make animations, work with kids, and have a background in environmental science, and speak Swedish; how could I ever have thought that I was the 'best' to tell the story?? You make sure that you do better.

Affiliation letter

Click here for mine.

Your affiliate must be 'willing to work with you', 'help you carry out the project', 'connect you with resources or people'. And 'if you have local contacts already, then weave them into the statement of grant purpose'. (Quotes from webinars).

My affiliate and I knew each other; we had worked together before on a small-scale pilot of the same project I proposed here. You need to understand that's not good enough for semi-final standards.

Recommendations

Two of my three recommenders shared their letter with me.

Here's the first one.

The second one I received as a google document, and unfortunately I didn't think to save a copy and now it's been deleted. But from what I remember of its contents: that I have a "careful, storytelling mind". That this project is especially feasible because it will take place supported by the existing robust infrastructure of libraries and schools in Sweden; that my work writing in the local community newspaper had been very well-received, that it was entirely on a volunteer basis, and that my readers would email me and even take me out to lunch; something like I have a keen intellect and lots of curiosity; that the recommender herself received a prestigious media fellowship, and she's married to a former Fulbrighter who now judges Fulbright applications, and with that background, she can still full-throatedly endorse me and my project.

So, to those of you applying now, make sure you show these example recommendation letters to whoever you're asking; and tell them they're going to have to step it up about 70 or more notches from here. Because this is not even semi-final standards!

Lens to choose

I picked the 'Human Journey' lens and emphasized that, but there was probably some overlap with a more environmental-focused lens. I thought that was okay based on what I heard in the webinars:

Vincent Pickett from the State Department: You need to cover one of the lenses, and they're pretty broad, but you could cover 2 to 3. Sometimes, there's "human journeys" happening in very "wild places".

David Braun from National Geographic: But don't sweat it too much. It's pretty much the whole world and everything in it.

But this didn't work for my application; maybe you should just stick within a single lens for yours.

If your country already had a fellow

Sweden did have a fellow, maybe 2 or 3 years ago; but she was only there for 3 months. During the webinars they said:

"It's all about the project, first. If a project is proposed for the same country as a previous year, then make it a new topic at least."

"Syrian refugees is a huge story, and affects millions. So [even if it's been done before] you could for sure look at it differently. Maybe something that closes the loop, finishes the story, or takes it to a new level." - Vincent Pickett from the State Department.

In retrospect, maybe they just don't want that. Or maybe the new State Department policy is that your application can't say anything nice about Sweden, because it will inflame Trump, because Sweden is one of his favorite punching-bags; or maybe Sweden just told the Fulbright they don't want any more applications about migration. Who knows?

Final thoughts

Now you know what an application that doesn't make it to the semi-finals looks like. Don't make yours like mine.

I am so, so sorry for every second, and every thought, that I placed into my application. If I could take every moment back, I would.

I am so sorry that when one of my recommenders disappeared (she was getting married) about three weeks before the application was due, and was no longer answering emails, I biked around at night so I could find someone to give me her phone number, so I could interrupt her two days before her wedding and honeymoon with nagging about my application. I am so sorry for the effort, for the worry, that I gave to tracking her down, and just to one tiny piece, of trying to put this application together.

I am so sorry for the spreadsheet I made of libraries in Sweden, of the time I put in searching for libraries in different cities, running through the staff lists and gauging who I should contact, keeping notes on who all I emailed, who responded, when they responded, what I told them in return.

I am sorry for the separate packet of notes I put together for each person who wrote me a recommendation.

I am sorry for the twenty pages of notes I took from the various websites with information: the site with the application checklist, the Sweden country Fulbright site, the site with the application tips, the site with the information on the three lenses, the general information site. And I am even sorrier for the I-don't-know-how-much time it took me to watch seven webinars, most over an hour long, and take 31 pages of notes on them all together.

I am sorry for how I agonized over the website instructions, nitpicked over every sentence, and debated what to do when two sites indicated two different rules to follow; how I censored the number of emails I sent to the contact at the IIE so as not to annoy her too much. Why did I do all that?

I am so, so sorry that both times when submitting the application - both during the initial school submission and then the post-campus interview submission - I re-read every part of the application twice, just to check one last time that there wasn't any word, any letter out of place. I regret that time and that concentration.

They give you no explanation.

I regret everything about this application.

A Swedish company in Morocco

Apparently, a Swedish store was going to open in Morocco. But the Moroccan government has scuttled the grand opening. They are mad because they claim that Sweden is recognizing a break-away country in the Sahara.

So the BBC Arabic talked live with an analyst from Rabat.

The analyst explained that the Swedish embassy in Morocco has not recognized the break-away country. But Swedish companies or NGOs have. The embassy says they can't do anything about that. But Morocco is mad anyways.

This would have been the first Ikea to open in Morocco.

I visited the Ikea in Jordan just a few weeks after its grand opening. You can read about it here.

Scandinavia in the Arabic news

Yesterday, the BBC Arabic had a Norwegian man in the news, for about 5 seconds:

The man on the left is Jens Stoltenberg. He is the the Secretary-General of NATO.

But today was much better because a Swedish man was on the news, and for a longer time, too!!!

This is Stefan di Mistura. He is the UN envoy to Syria.

He was talking about Russia sending warships to Syria.
The Swedish man said: Russia should be the one to decide when to send warships, it should be the UN.
Then he added: We understand the Russians want to put down Daa-esh (ISIS), but they cannot be beaten by dropping bombs or even by killing fighters. We need to solve the root problems.

A Swedish man talks about Syria at the UN

I am actually very happy, because a few years ago, there was a Swedish man called Åke Sellström who was on the BBC Arabic a lot, because if I remember correctly, he was trying to do something about chemical weapons in Syria.

Now, there is another Swedish man!

His name is Staffan di Mistura. He is half-Italian, but that's okay.

He has been trying to come up with a plan to solve some of the big problems there. He is appointed by the UN.

So they've shown him a couple of times at the UN, and a few days ago, they showed him meeting the foreign minister of Syria.

The nice about Swedish people is: even when they meet evil people, it doesn't rub off on them! But I think that they rub off on other people <3

So here he is:

A Swedish man on the BBC Arabic

There's a Swedish man called Staffan de Mistura who is a diplomat and tries to help make peace. Well, he has Italian ancestry, too, but that's okay.

He was on the BBC Arabic a few weeks ago:

He was condemning really dangerous bombs that everyone in Syrian is dropping on everyone else. The Syrian government, if I remember correctly, was complaining because they claim they aren't the worst actors and why should they be singled out; but the Swedish diplomat was condemning everyone.

The lady at the BBC Arabic who was anchoring the news that evening is right here:

Do you see the glow on her face because she is speaking about a Swedish person? Well, she is the first hijabi anchor on the BBC Arabic. At first, I only saw on her special occasions, like the summer Olympics, or during holidays (last Christmas). Now they've put her on in the middle of the night, too.

Swedish foreign minister on the Arabic news

This is Margot Wallström. I think that's her name. She is the foreign minister of Sweden.

The BBC Arabic was running a report about Russia on May 31. I think they were having a conference. And they chose to include the comments of the Swedish minister with the report. How cool is that?

Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Jordan

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute is named after a Swedish man. That's all you need to know to know it is probably doing a good thing.

They have an office in Amman, Jordan which mostly focuses on human rights law throughout the Middle East.

What they want to do is get the judges and lawyers in each Middle Eastern country to undertake a review of all their legal code as relates to a particular branch of human rights law.

First, RWI contacts the Head of the Judicial Unit and explains what they want to do. If the Judicial Unit Head agrees (and apparently they usually do), the Head signs a Memorandum of Understanding with RWI and then they can get to work.

[I thought that was funny because I've always gotten the impression that Iraq's justice system, for example, is very corrupt. I always remember this story http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/23/world/fg-iraq-woman23. So I was wondering why Iraq's judiciary would ever want to sign an agreement that would require them to review human rights law. But I was told that the Iraqis involved are very hard-working and dedicated.]

The first step is to find lawyers and judges who want to be part of a Working Group. Then, those lawyers and judges pick a topic. In Morocco, they chose labor and women's rights laws. In Algeria, they chose child rights, and in Jordan the penal code. Iraq doesn't know what their focus area will be, yet. They are still deciding.

The Working Group starts to meet and to fulfill its purpose. The members have to investigate how local laws compare to international standards.

Each Working Group has a leader who stays in contact with RWI. And maybe two to three times a year, the Working Group members from the entire Arab region get together so they can talk, discuss, and compare progress and learn from each other.

Because the process is signed off by each country's judiciary, and because the work is done not by RWI but by the volunteer judges and lawyers in the Working Group, it makes for a very non-confrontational approach. Sometimes NGOs come in and say: we have the money, so do what we say. But that's not the case here. There's very little money, in fact. All the members of the Working Groups are involved without compensation, so they really have to be committed to the cause.

RWI has already been supporting these Working Groups for about three or four years in Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria. Those countries have made more progress, are moving faster, and are more sold on the process. The newer countries (Tunisia, Palestine, Lebanon, and Libya) are still organizing themselves, and then there's the effect of outside events. For example, there's a Working Group in Libya but it's not really meeting at the moment because the security is bad. They wanted to include Egypt, but couldn't, also because of recent events.

The idea is that if the Working Groups get far enough, they will take their investigation of national versus international law and incorporate it into the judicial curriculum for current law students. In that sense, the change that they hope to see in application of the law would come to fruition years from now. But it would be good, solid, internally-motivated change.

I asked: in Lebanon, they just passed a law against domestic violence by the skin of their teeth, and there was lots of opposition to the law from people who I guess like to see husbands beating up their wives, or something. So how would Lebanon's judiciary have agreed to RWI coming in and trying to change those laws? And I was told: it's not that RWI changes laws, they just convene the Working Group under the Judicial Unit, which compares country and international law, tries to see what is different, and one day maybe the law school curriculum is changed to instill a greater sensitivity to human rights in graduating students.

Then I thought of something else: in Morocco, the Working Group is looking at women's law. But just a year ago or so, a girl was raped, was forced to marry her rapist, and then she committed suicide. So how can the Working Group deal with that? And I was told: the Working Group probably didn't choose women's law based on a particular case. The first issue they looked at was labor laws. Then they added family law. And they just look at what's the same and what's different between international and national law.

But I think that when it comes to women's law, they'll just find so many discrepancies, it'll be like, what the heck??? It's just be super depressing, right?

Some countries, like Morocco, have supremacy of international law over national law for any branch of international law for which Morocco has signed and ratified a treaty. That's kind of cool! So if a judge is aware of that and wants to apply an international standard in a situation where the local laws are not adequate, then s/he can.

In Jordan, judges have been applying or meeting international law standards in some cases.

They use an RWI booklet for guidance. This booklet was compiled by a coordinator in Algeria. It is full of cases in the Arab world were judges applied international law in their sentences and decisions. Seeing all these cases can be encouragement for other judges and prosecutors to do the same. It's not cases that happened in Europe or elsewhere, but right at home. So the judges can say: okay, there's a precedent for it and it's acceptable here in the Middle East and North Africa. They have this booklet for free in English and Arabic on the RWI website.

I think it sounds like a very decentralized process, because you have all the Working Groups, who are in contact with the office in Amman, which in turn is in contact with the office in my dear, darling Sweden. That office is always involved as well.

Last but not least, it looks like this process of an internal Working Group in which lawyers and judges investigate their own laws had not been tried by RWI in any of their other world-wide regions before. The Middle East and North Africa is the first place it's being done. That's nice and creative!

Other glimpses of Sweden in the office:

The Swedish Embassy in Washington DC

When I went to the Swedish Embassy in 2011, all I could remember was a tiny creek beside it, so I remembered it as "Sweden on the Puddle." But then I went back in spring of this year, and I see now that I never turned around to look in the opposite direction. The embassy really is right in front of the Potomac. So they call it "Sweden on the Potomac." It is a beautiful view.

A very nice flag flying footloose and fancy-free on a beautiful day in DC!

 The mighty Potomac in front of the Embassy

In 2011, there was a little red house, no higher than my waist, out in front of the embassy, that looked like a tiny version of Bullerbyn. But this time, the lawn was bare except for flowers.

At first, I thought we'd somehow come to the British embassy by mistake because there's an extra flag flying over the embassy and that's the first one I could see. I don't know what that's about. I thought it was the British flag, but on closer inspection, it was some other country. Sweden is always sharing.

It's a big building, full of glass, but you can enter but a tiny part if you're just a lowly citizen come to renew a passport. I was there with a friend who needed to do just that.

The entrance hall seems like one giant stateroom that takes up the entire first floor, with glass walls all the way around. It has a nice wood floor, honey-colored. Peeking in from outside through the glass walls, it seems to be almost entirely empty. You step inside, hoping to see more, but instead, everything is hidden behind the big desk blocking your path, and the security guard standing there, querying for your attention. So you don't have time to be nosy. After the guard asks about your business and does a search of your bag, you can go to the door on your left - a big, heavy, wooden door, all in the same warm honey color as the floor, with big glass panes in it. I think the entire embassy is glass and honey-colored wood.

All the passport renewal work is done past that heavy door in a reception room. When I was there, a man was holding his baby girl, dressed in overalls, in front of the counter, trying to get something sorted out. And there were two older women in a corner, seated on two black chairs. They were also trying to sort something out.

When we walked in, we were right behind a man in a suit, and another older man in a military uniform - not camouflage but those lieutenant outfits with a row of distinguished buttons and a name tag, but I didn't catch the name. So I'm not sure if the military man was Swedish or American.

The two men told the receptionist that they wanted to see Magnus. So Magnus was called down. Magnus came from somewhere else in the building and emerged into the glass corridor behind the reception room, where I would not be permitted. And then Magnus led the lucky men in suits and uniforms away and into the inner sanctum.

The receptionist was so nice. She had on a very beautiful silk yellow blouse and black jacket. And she alternated with a man dressed in a formal blue suit, and he was also so nice, and had such a nice smile.

I sat in one of the two white chairs right by the door. The man with the adorable baby girl was beside me now - he was waiting on his wife, who was soon finished. Behind us was a table with brochures. One was full of Pippi Longstocking pictures! It was advertising an exhibit. I was wondering where amongst those empty glass walls I could find the exhibit, but then I saw it was for the American-Swedish museum in Philadelphia.

When it was my friend's turn to get her photo/passport done, she just went into an alcove behind the reception. So you don't get to go anywhere special at all, even then. And there's just a curtain that separates you from everyone else. There's another nice lady back there, and she takes your photo and fingerprints.

The only further penetration I managed was by asking to use the bathroom, which I really did need to use - I wasn't making it up. You go back out the heavy door of the reception into the greater glass entrance hall. You leave an ID card with the guard at that entrance desk, who was now a woman. She writes down who you are, and then you can go down on the elevator. The elevator is in a glass shaft, so that's pretty cool to travel in. The ground floor with the entrance is on Level 2, and the bathroom is on Level 1. So you just go down one floor.

One Level 1, through the elevator glass, I could see a group of four people standing at the end of a large room, next to a table upon which was a spread of food. And there was a lovely river of rippling water - I guess more properly a fountain - that made shadows and brought light all the way along the edge of the room. Water against a dark basin.

But the elevator door opened the other way - so I couldn't see any more. I just saw the hallway with the bathrooms. At one end of the hall, black block letters were hung on the wall. They spelled out, "ALFRED NOBEL." I guess maybe that's the name they gave to the hall with the river.

The bathroom was very nice - very clean and black marble. Or maybe it was black granite.

Then I left the Embassy and sat outside it on the grass, where they have signs about protecting the Potomac from pollution and overfishing, and watched the flag soar in the breeze!

Outside the Embassy, they have a special Embassy bike parked to a bike rack!

The end.

A politician from Sweden on the Arabic News

I managed to listen to the BBC Arabic for maybe two hours total this past month, and just by luck, I caught an interview with a Swedish politician.

Her name is Abir Al-Sahlani, and she was interviewed by Malak Jaafar in mid-November:

Abir Al-Sahlani

Malak is always a very tough interviewer, so she started out by asking about some corruption charges that Ms. Abir had faced in Sweden. It was a charge she had been cleared of, but it looks like it cost Ms. Abir the chance to run for office during the last election this summer. 

Abir: I was cleared of the charges, but I decided not to run I knew the whole campaign would focus on this one issue, and I didn't want to deal with that.

Malak asked if there had been a conspiracy in the Center Party (to which Ms. Abir belongs) against her, or if they had been split over how to deal with her.

Abir: There's always opposition when you're a politician; and sometimes it's opposition with integrity, and sometimes it's opposition without integrity. I believe I faced opposition without integrity.

Malak: From who?

Abir: From people who did not want me to have a voice in the government, including people within the party. I think I annoy a lot of people inside the party, and in Sweden, and in the Arab world, too.

Malak: does the chief of the Center Party not really care for you?

Malak's sharp eyes don't miss much

Abir: No, I consider the head of the party to be my personal friend, and it's not entirely her decision, anyways. In a country like Sweden, in which there's been no wars for about 300 years, the political system is very structured and organized. Decision-making is not very centrally-controlled. Even lower-level party members have a say, and so do committees. So it's not necessarily the head of the party who decides all things.

Malak: So, what remains of your role in the Center Party? Have you been frozen out?

Abir: Not at all. I am on the Leadership Council for the party, on which there's only 21 members. And I'm the representative in the party for Stockholm.

Malak: But still, you gave in and didn't run for Parliament.

 Ms. Abir thinking about her battles

Abir: Well, I sometimes think: not all battles have to be mine to fight. I'm a person, and I have a certain amount of energy. I need to put that energy into battles where there's a bigger chance I might win.

Malak: And what are your battles?

Abir: Mostly equality between people. I don't like for people to look at me and think: oh, she's weak. Oh, we need to feel sorry for her. Of course, it's true that I met with tragedy as a child. My parents were politicians in Iraq. I attended political meetings while in my mother's womb, and when I was a year and a half old, I was threatened with assassination from my parents' political enemies.

[Iraq, you make me proud every time!]

Abir continues: As a 15-year-old child, I left Iraq all on my own, without family. I came to Sweden, and by the time I was 16, I had taken on the responsibility and succeeded in gathering all my family there. Otherwise, we would never have been able to live all together. But, I want people not just to focus on all this, I want to show that I'm stronger, that I am capable, that I accomplish. I want to break the idea of Middle Eastern women as a pitiful victim.

Then Malak brought up Abir's failed campaign to win a seat in the Iraqi parliament back in 2004. Abir explained: she had spent very little time on the ground in Iraq prior to that. A proper campaign would have been interacting with people and earning their trust. But she did not have a chance to do that, and she cannot expect that people are going to vote for her just because her name is on the ballot.

Then they went into a whole discussion of post-war Iraq in 2003/2004 and what went wrong, and Abir says: maybe Saudi and Iran didn't really want democracy in Iraq, and maybe Turkey and Syria, too, maybe no one wanted democracy to succeed in Iraq, and the Americans made mistakes and ...

But I'm going to skip the rest of that, and pick back up where Malak asks the question you always always have to ask someone who grew up between two different cultures:

Malak: People say that in Iraq, you have become a stranger, having lived for so long apart from the country. And in Sweden, people view you as a refugee. You talk a lot about integration. Do you feel as though wherever you go, you will not be able to properly fit in, whether in Iraq or in Sweden?

Abir: Where should I go, the moon? I am a product of Iraq. I am Iraqi. I am a product of the Middle East. That is the reality. That is our situation. I didn't come from the moon. When I see mothers who send their children to school, only for them to die there from violence, I feel for that mother, whether she is Iraqi or Somali or Tajiki. It doesn't matter. But when we are talking about democracy, this is experience, and it is not an insult to any country, or any religion, or any group of people. I think these are values that all people hold dear. And Inshallah anyone from the outside can come to Iraq and maybe fix our problems, whoever it maybe be, just let the problems get fixed.

Malak: But it's still true that people want to vote for someone who looks like them, and has the same shared experience. So was your path to politics within the Center Party of Sweden driven by just Iraqis living in Sweden who voted for you?

Abir: Not really. There's not a lot of Iraqis in the Center Party. Let me repeat, I stand for liberal values, for democracy, for humanity, and maybe voters, whether they were Swedish or Iraqi, identified with that and that's how I got voted in and that's what I represent.

Then they started talking about integration. I really really really loved what she said at this point, so much, that I would have started shouting, except for I was in the office.

Abir said: When I talk about integration of immigrants in Sweden, I don't mean it in the sense of I have to change culturally. I just mean that I should be a part of Swedish politics, a part of Swedish civil society. It doesn't have anything to do with starting to eat pork, or starting to drink, or wearing skimpy clothes, or naming your kids Karin or Ester, because those things anyways do not really define Swedish society. Swedish society is much richer than that. Swedish society is humanity. It's the equality between man and woman. It's that there's no difference between whether you're white or black or blonde or dark or red. It's that you have a right in this society, and that you can live your life in all its ways, inside of the laws.

Explaining all good things about Sweden!

More good things about Sweden!

And I (me, not Abir) just want to add that actually, plenty of Muslims drink alcohol; and I always dislike it when we look at the west and say, oh, look how different they are, and what weird customs they have, when the same exact stuff is happening in Arab countries. As for being blonde, I have a cousin who's blonde. There are Arabs who are blonde. Not brilliant sun-shine blonde, but soft honey blonde. And, as for names: I also have a cousin named Cinderella (no joke). And I knew a Muslim Syrian girl here in the US who was named Suzanne. And I met a Muslim girl in Jordan who was named Sally. They both wore hijabs and were very proud Arabs. So even the names don't really mean much anymore. 

I met a Swedish girl in Jordan who was called Karin, and she was so nice, and so sweet, and so open to inviting people over to her place. And she was doing tons of activities with kids. Why shouldn't an Arab or a Muslim called their daughter Karin after the Karin I met in Jordan?

Back to the interview. I think Malak's next question was something like: you are a Muslim woman, and the Swedish Center Party was just using you as a face to prove that they were welcoming of immigrants, but otherwise, they don't really get any use out of you.

Malak and her piercing eyes

Abir said: no, I don't let anyone to use me in any way. I act for myself. I have Swedish voters who vote for me. In the 2009 elections for the European Parliament I received over 7000 votes just for me, Abir, not for the Center Party. Of course, I am Iraqi, and Arab, and Muslim, and all of that; I am not ashamed of being an immigrant. But first and foremost, I am Abir.

Malak: Tell me about the second generation Muslims growing up in Europe and who are going to fight with Da-esh (or ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.

Abir: I think those kids are lacking in identity, both inside society and inside their families. I think that a lot of those kids probably have had to take on the roles of parenting their parents. By leaving Europe, these kids gave up democracy, freedom, and respect. I think a lot of them were searching for an identity, and they went to mosques to find this identity, and some of those mosques likely have extremist views.

Malak: You know, a lot of those kids don't even think that their home countries in Europe are democratic or free.

Abir: Sure, when I talk about integration, I don't just talk about what immigrants have to do, but I also ask for governments and countries to open up space and room for these immigrants. People have to realize that tax-paying and law-abiding people are not just white. In fact, tax-paying and law-abiding people might look just like me. Or it might be a lady wearing a hijab or a man with a beard wearing a dishdasha. All of those people might follow the law, too. Most of us are like that.

Abir lays out her points

Malak: On to a new topic. In western countries, there's a very bad image of Islam these days. Why can't people like you, who are in politics and have a voice, try to change this picture?

Abir: Really, I have tried to promote dialogue about Islam. We are lacking this. Everyone has their own opinion and has an opinion, and is quick to accuse others of things. I asked the Islamic leaders in Sweden to clarify their positions regarding Da-esh, or ISIS, in Syria and Iraq. They're the leaders, so why not give their clear positions. I experienced a very negative response. They said: why do we Muslims always have to clarify our positions every time something happens? So I think there's two issues. One is, we Muslims always find ourselves accused of things, and that is hard to deal with. Secondly, I don't think they have a good idea of what it means to be a leader. If you are a leader, then you have a responsibility. I gave them an example. I told them that as immigrants, you want all the political parties in Sweden to say that we are not going to be against immigrants. You want them all to be very clear about what their position is. This principle applies just the same way to you. You are leaders, so you have to state your positions. 

Another thing: Muslims in the west always feel accused and oppressed. Why? How can we solve that problem? I said: why can't we Muslims in Sweden decide on a Swedish Islam? Could we decide what is right and what would work best for us? I didn't suggest that we should become very different. But I was told: no, we can't do this. But why? To me, this is crucial. 

Malak: Do you think that there should be a British Islam and French Islam and a Swedish Islam?

Abir: I don't mean that precisely. I just mean that we should have more than just a single school of Islam, which right now is the Wahabi school setting the standards. We should have a dialogue about these things.

Malak: In Swedish mosques, do you sense that there are certain people bankrolling the building and running of the mosques, and that the views of those people end up being promoted.

Abir: I can tell you one thing at least: I used to go to Friday prayers in the biggest mosque in Sweden. They would always say: pray for the martyrs in Gaza. But when it comes to Iraq, they never said pray for the martyrs in Iraq. They would just say: Iraqis are killing each other. Why in Gaza are they martyrs, and why in Iraq are they not?

Malak: And what do you think the reason for that is?

Abir: Sectarianism. (By which I think she means the big Shia-Sunni fight.)

And thus ended a Swedish politician's turn on the BBC Arabic. How exciting! You can watch the full interview by clicking here (it will take you to the video on the BBC Arabic's YouTube page.)