Nyamko Ana Sabuni is a well known figure in Sweden's political arena. She has been the Minister for Integration and Gender Equality since 2006 having been first elected to Parliament in 2002 as a member of the Liberal People's Party. Her outspoken opinions ensure that she receives plenty of attention in the Swedish and international media.

She is a staunch defender of secular liberal values and as such is often derided by the left, as well as religious groups - particularly Muslims. She advocates a ban on Islamic head-dress for girls under 15 as well as compulsory gynecological examinations to prevent female circumcision. Sabuni cites the practices of arranged marriage, female circumcision, and extreme patriarchy as elements of certain sections of Sweden's Islamic minority which should not be tolerated. "Arranged marriage is not something recommended by Islam," she said in a London Times interview. "Nor is genital mutilation.

Many people say this is our tradition, our religion. But it is unacceptable, whatever the reason. I will not be scared into silence. I will never accept that women and girls are oppressed in the name of religion." This is something that she feels very strongly about and is discussed in her 2006 book Flickorna vi sviker or The Girls We Betray.

Death threats have been issued against Sabuni due to these views, meaning that she now has 24 hour bodyguards looking after her security.

Her views on this sensitive matter have been partly formed by looking at what is happening in the United Kingdom, which has seen much greater levels of immigration and multiculturalism. 
"The mentality in Britain has been very tolerant and accepting but now you have a problem that suddenly you realised, gosh, there are some values we have to defend," she said. "We have not reached that point in Sweden yet and I am saying, let's not end in a situation where you have to feel panic. Let's face these issues early, let's talk about them and address them, before they become established problems."

Her father was a left-wing politician from Zaire who lived in political exile in Burundi. It was there that Nyamko Sabuni was born to her Christian father and Muslim mother. In 1981 the family moved to Sweden and obtained political asylum. Sabuni was raised in Kungsangen and went on to study law at the Uppsala University, migration policy at Malardalen University, and media communications at Berghs School of Communication. 

Sabuni believes that while there has been much migration to Sweden from Africa and other parts of the developing world, cutting down on numbers is the wrong way to go. She believes that more jobs are needed not fewer new citizens. In this way she wants to see more programmes to encourage integration such as a "Guarantee of Activities" one which would match up jobless people with useful work in society - for example helping the elderly. "They come to Sweden because they know there is a positive policy. We would rather see the EU start acting the way we do than we have to act like they do." 

Overall then her attitude shows generosity, tolerance, and a helping hand to newcomers while being unsympathetic to values which she sees as having no place in Swedish society - such as the domination of women on religious grounds.

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