After protest by Muslims: German school authority bans subject of forced marriage

In Germany, an exercise from a school textbook caused a fierce shitstorm: the pupils were asked to examine a sensitive topic in class, on which different cultures have very different opinions, from different points of view. To give the children the opportunity to empathise even better with the task and their argumentation, a concrete situation was given: A forced marriage within a family from the Turkish-Muslim cultural circle, living in Germany.

Strong accusations were quickly raised against the allegedly “racist and populist” lesson, apologies were made, the example and the topic of forced marriage in general should be taken out of the book – but the authors of the book took to the barricades.

The specific example was as follows: “A Turkish family father in Germany marries his daughter to his deceased brother’s son without her consent in order to secure him a residence permit for Germany and thus an existence.” Based on this initial situation, the students were supposed to start an open discourse in the classroom – but this developed into a full-blown shitstorm against the school, the textbook and the supposedly “dangerous” ideas behind it.

The “Federation of Turkish Parents’ Associations in North Rhine-Westphalia” (Fötev) wrote an incendiary letter to the school minister responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia, Yvonne Gebauer (FDP). The reproach: the school would use the “vocabulary of right-wing populists” with the “extremely prejudiced task”. The Turkish-Islamic Community of Siegburg (DITIB) also complained.

The reaction followed immediately – in the form of a series of apologies: Both the school management, the North-Rhine Westphalia Ministry of Education and the Cornelsen publishing house, publisher of the textbook, apologised for the “violation of freedom from discrimination”. The textbook publisher promised that the offensive task would no longer appear like this in the new edition.

The reaction followed immediately – in the form of a series of apologies: Both the school management, the North-Rhine Westphalia Ministry of Education and the Cornelsen publishing house, publisher of the textbook, apologised for the “violation of freedom from discrimination”. The textbook publisher promised that the offensive task would no longer appear like this in the new edition. The Ministry of Education of North Rhine-Westphalia agreed to a proposal by the publisher in which the topic of forced marriage would no longer appear at all. But the authors of the book resisted and saw the open discourse about very real conflicts existing in society in danger.

Eva Sewing, one of the five authors, finds this “outrageous”. Here, “a fatal signal has been sent to teachers, students, textbook authors and publishers: dialogue is to be prevented and erased here!” After a long struggle, the authors won a partial victory: the task remained in the new edition of the textbook – but in a “censored” version: for example, the nationality of the father may no longer be mentioned.

The complete example from the textbook "Accesses to Philosophy" for reading:

"Are there actually moral norms that are binding for all people, or does every culture have its own norms that are valid for it? Especially after centuries of European civilisation ruthlessly suppressing the values of other cultures, which it considered inferior, through violence or proselytising, we are obliged to respect other cultures. But does it already follow that one must renounce any criticism of other ideas, that there is no standard for such criticism?"

Example: "A Turkish father in Germany marries his daughter to his deceased brother's son without the latter's consent in order to secure him a residence permit for Germany and thus a livelihood."

Additional information: In Germany, thousands of girls a year turn to counselling centres to escape a forced marriage. In 2021, there were 77 criminal proceedings for forced marriage.

https://exxpress.at/nach-protest-schulbehoerde-verbietet-thema-zwangsheirat/