...that the government is thinking about repealing the blatantly unconstitutional, discriminatory, and, well, stupid, "24 year law" that made it illegal for foreigners under 24 to marry, and made it illegal for Icelanders under the age of 24 to marry a foreigner.
'Bout fucking time.
Of course, this isn't really a repeal, more of a reform. They aren't going to strike the law from the books, merely tweak it. Now instead of it being illegal they'll just put the couple in question through the ringer, invade their privacy and then pass judgement as to whether their marriage is "real" or not.
Its funny that for all the furor that the State Church aroused when it refused to bend to the will of the Icelandic people and allow same-sex marriage, and for all the celebrations when the government granted same-sex couples the same rights as domestic partners as unmarried heterosexual couples enjoy, HARDLY ANYONE SAID WORD ONE ABOUT THIS LAW.
It had to do with foreigners. So nobody really cared.
I personally knew a woman whose young husband was deported back to his home country, where he faced possible lynching for marrying a non-Muslim, in part because of this stupid law.
I do have to give mad props to 24 though (even if it is a sub-company of the arch-conservative Möggan), for aggressively countering the ongoing blame-the-foreigners-for-everything campaign currently raging through the pages of Frettablaðið, and the somewhat schizoid ramblings of DV (which tends to damn the foreigners, then defend them, then damn the xenophobes, then defend them...).
All told, though, this is just a small bright spot. All in all, it seems that the tide of nationalism is rising all over my adopted lava-lump, what with fuck head ignorant kids like the ÍfÍ (Idiots Fucking Idiots: Keeping Iceland inbred since 2005) actually getting face time in a major paper.
The Íf'Í, fuck. Morons. Bunch of kids too stupid to get a job, who then decide to blame the foreigners. Bunch of underachieving little shits. They're not even "good" at being nationalist, what with the standard white-kid-ghetto wear they're pictured in.
Tell you what kids, you wanna be a real nationalist? Wanna really "pure" Iceland? OK then.
No more pizza for you. No more burgers and fries, hell for that matter no more potatoes. No more rum, whiskey, or wine. Brennivin and only brennivin. No more nachos, no more pasta, no more stir fry. After all, its un-Icelandic.
No more Fifty Cent, no more Outkast. No more Rammsteinn, no more Scooter, Marylin Manson, Slipknot, or Limp Biscuit. Nope, no more. You only get to listen to Bubbi, KK, and Nylon from now on.
Oh, and say goodbye to your Levi's, your Sketchers, your Hugo Boss (believe it or not this is the web page of one of the ÍFÍ idiots interviewed in DV). Nope. Its all lópapeysur and ullasokkar for you lot.
After all, you wouldn't want to look foreign. You might have to beat yourself up.
Wankers.
4 comments:
Sam, if you're going to complain about the law, at least get straight what you're complaining about.
It's not illegal to marry foreigners, or illegal for foreigners to marry, or anything like that.
It's a law which says that under 24, being married to an Icelander doesn't automatically grant you the right to stay in the country. It doesn't say you'll be deported or punished, it just says you won't automatically be allowed to stay, you have to apply for it like everyone else.
Now, I think the law sucks and should be repealed and I think there's lots wrong with Iceland's attitude towards foreigners, but please don't make shit up just to make it sound worse than it really is.
Point taken.
I do let the rant get the better of me at times.
Yet people have been denied residency (after having moved here with a spouse) which to my mind amounts to deportation, and the law can and has broken up families.
Likewise, when I asked about this law at Útlendingureftirlitið, the explanation I recieved was basically that "you shouldn't marry anyone under 24, or you might get in trouble". To my admittedly paranoid (in matters reguarding the immigration services)mind this sounds like a ban.
Which brings up an interesting point. For instance, a permanent resident of Iceland has every right to apply for social services, up to and including unemployment benefits, at least according the the letter of the law. But when a foreigner, with a "green card" applies for umemployment, or even in a few cases, rental assistance, we are warned that we'll "never get citizenship" if we apply, or, as happened to me, told to "get a job in two weeks or your visa will be recalled".
Its a matter of the letter of the law and the spirit its enforeced in I think.
No argument there.
I'm just a stickler for correctness at times, especially on important issues like this.
If you make an otherwise valid argument but embellish it with wildly inaccurate assertions like the "illegal to marry" one, that just makes it easier for those who disagree to write you off as someone who doesn't know what he's talking about.
Fact of the matter is, the reality is quite bad enough and doesn't need any exaggeration.
Of course, maybe you don't think anyone but your friends are listening and don't think it matters either way... but this is The Internet; you never know! ;-)
It is a stupid law, and idiotic to have copy-pasted it directly from Denmark (where they do have a legitimate problem with forced marriages of young(usually muslim) people). It didn't work there except to annoy people who were genuinely in love, and hasn't stopped forced marriages. Plus in Denmark, not only do you have to show that you have a steady income, an apartment but also that the spouse has "a greater attachment to Denmark than to their home country" which is basically a clause that allows the case worker to unilaterally decide whether or not you get to stay.
So stupid. The Icelandic law and its unwritten uses is at least not that bad.
P.s. I still think it was nice of DV to show photos of these ÍFÍ people. Now we know who to beat up with phonebooks
Post a Comment