She Left Islam - Then Faced Religious Bullying at Swedish Language School

HÄLLEFORS - Amina Afrah left Islam for Christianity and tried to break free from the Somali environment where she had lived under religious and social pressure. But at her Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) classes in the small town of Hällefors, she says she ran into the same thing all over again: Muslim classmates mocking her Christian faith, Muslim staff treating her differently and a school management that refused to see it. When she protested, she was suspended from her classes.

Swedish for Immigrants is the state-funded language programme run by Swedish municipalities. It is meant to be the newcomer's way into Swedish society. For Amina, she says, it became a place where she no longer felt protected by Swedish law.

"I don't live under Swedish law in this school. I live under sharia," she told Samnytt.

"I Couldn't Say I Wasn't Muslim"

Amina grew up in Somalia and says her doubts about Islam began in childhood. At around nine, she remembers asking an imam why a person could commit sins and then have them wiped away by a pilgrimage to Mecca. The answer, as she recalls it, was simple: stop asking questions and believe.

"I was a child. But I couldn't say I wasn't Muslim. I could have been killed," she said.

So she kept up appearances. In a country marked by violence and the Islamist terror group al-Shabaab, she was married off to a man she had not chosen. When he later set out for Sweden, she says, the plan was to take the children but leave her behind. It was her uncle who persuaded him otherwise.

In Sweden she left Islam openly and became a Christian. The old life did not let go. She describes strong social pressure from people in the Somali community trying to bring her back to the faith, and a dependence on others that came from not yet speaking Swedish. Anyone who cannot read a letter from the council has to trust someone else to read it. Anyone who cannot talk to a social worker needs an interpreter. Anyone learning the language depends on their teacher.

Amina was at the bottom of that chain: a woman, an immigrant, dependent on others for language - and an apostate.

Mocked After She Removed the Veil

When she started SFI, Amina thought the classes would be her way out of that dependence. Instead, she says, she found people from the same religious milieu she had tried to escape on the other side of the teacher's desk.

In Hällefors she singles out a male SFI teacher and a man who helps students with computers, both of whom she describes as Islamists. She says veiled Muslim women got help with assignments, computers and course material, while she was repeatedly refused the same help. When she tried to ask, she says, the teacher held a finger to his lips: "Quiet."

Asked when she realised it was about her religion, she answered: "When I took off the veil."

At first she covered her hair to fit in, even though she no longer saw herself as Muslim. Then she stopped. When students were asked in class what they had done at the weekend, others talked about the mosque and Ramadan. Amina talked about church, services and Bible study.

That, she says, changed everything. Other Muslim students began mocking her for her Christian faith - and according to Amina, the teacher she expected to step in joined in instead.

Tried the Principal - Was Told to Be Quiet

Amina eventually went over the teachers' heads to the school management. She says it did not help. When she tried to explain to the deputy principal that her treatment was linked to her leaving Islam, she says she was again met with a finger to the lips.

She also says she was told the men she was complaining about had permanent contracts, so management could do nothing about them.

Samnytt has seen extensive correspondence showing that Kristina, a Somali-speaking interpreter who has long worked with Christian converts and ex-Muslims, and an associate passed Amina's account on to the school over several months. They wrote that Amina felt bullied, singled out and denied help - while noting that they had not been in the classroom themselves and asking the municipality to investigate.

One incident can be checked. Amina had been given a dictation text to practise and worked on it at home. When she arrived at school, she found the teacher had sent a different text to the other students, but not to her. A substitute teacher reacted, she says, and made sure the original text was used. The municipality has been asked to check exactly which text was sent to whom, and when.

Suspended After Speaking Up

On October 21, Amina arrived at school to find a meeting already arranged with the principal and two of the people her complaints were about. She says she had not been told about it in advance. There were documents and recording equipment on the table, and the school had booked a Somali interpreter.

Amina refused the interpreter. She says eight years of bad experiences with Somali interpreters have left her afraid that sensitive information, including about her Christian faith, will spread in the community she has tried to leave. She asked for Kristina instead.

The same day, she was suspended from classes. At a new meeting on October 23, she says, the school presented more specific accusations: that she had raised her voice, arrived late and taken private phone calls during lessons.

Amina disputes the school's version and asks why these alleged problems only became serious after she raised the alarm about the teachers. Asked whether Amina had been told what she was accused of before the suspension, Kristina said: "No." Kristina and her associate have demanded that the municipality show what the suspension was based on and when Amina was given a chance to respond.

"They Sit There Year After Year"

Kristina's criticism goes further than one case. "Islamists sit in the social services office, they sit in SFI, they sit in the agencies," she said. She says she has interpreted for Christian Somalis, atheists and LGBT people because they do not trust Somali interpreters.

Those claims of broad Islamist infiltration are her own assessment and cannot be proven by Amina's case. But the risks faced by people who break with religious and family norms are well documented in Sweden. The national expertise centre at the Swedish Gender Equality Agency notes that the risk of honour-related oppression rises when an individual deviates from the norms of the family or group.

Kristina also argues that the system keeps people stuck. Amina has spent several years in SFI in different rounds and says the difference between teachers is enormous. With trained Swedish teachers, she says, she made clear progress and reached C level. Elsewhere, the teachers "talk and talk", with little structured teaching.

"I haven't learned anything. I've lost so many years," she said.

"They sit there year after year," Kristina said of Muslim women who stay in the SFI system for long periods. Anyone who still cannot speak Swedish after many years remains dependent on interpreters, social workers and teachers as go-betweens - and for someone trying to break with their own group, that dependence can become a prison.

Amina also describes an earlier episode in Fagersta, where she says Muslim students complained to the principal about a skilled Swedish male teacher and wanted her to complain too, even though she had never had him as a teacher. She says he later disappeared from the classroom and was replaced by a Somali Muslim woman. Samnytt has not yet been able to verify the circumstances of that change.

"We Will Not Run Anymore"

Kristina has offered to help Amina leave Hällefors and start again somewhere else. Amina has said no. She has already fled once, and she does not intend to be driven out again.

"I want to finish SFI. I want to get an education. I want to live my life. I want to work," she said.

That is also why she has chosen to appear under her real name and with her photo. She knows it is a risk. But she says there are other women living the way she once did - women who no longer believe in Islam but keep wearing the veil because the price of breaking away feels too high. She wants them to see her.

Asked why she does not stay anonymous, she said: "We will not run anymore."

Samnytt has repeatedly sought principal Greta Hidén and deputy principal Lindamarie Brandt for comment on Amina's account, the school's actions and the suspension, but has not yet received a reply.