Finnish minister apologises for Instagram poll on Isil women
FINLAND’S new prime minister made headlines this week after becoming the world’s youngest head of state at just 34 years old.
But her coalition is already in trouble after a 32-year-old new minister posted a poll on social media asking whether Finland should take back the wives of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters or just take their children and leave the women in Syria.
Katri Kulmuni, the finance minister, apologised for her Instagram poll that asked her followers for their views on the fate of 10 Finnish women and 30 children who are currently in the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp in north-east Syria.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are insisting that European governments take both the mothers and the children but many states, including Finland, are wary of bringing home any adult members of Isil.
Ms Kulmuni, the leader of the Centre Party, posted a photograph of herself smiling at the camera alongside a poll asking if Finland should bring home “just children” or “children and mothers”.
She deleted the post and apologised after it came in for widespread criticism online. “I wanted to discuss this complex and difficult issue on social media. It failed and I apologise for it,” she said.
Andrew Stroehlein, the European media director at Human Rights Watch, was among those who criticised Ms Kulmuni’s post.
“A state should respect the rights of its citizens in all cases, not put life-anddeath decisions about those citizens to a public referendum on social media,” Mr Stroehlein wrote on Twitter. “What’s next, public hangings based on the volume of stadium cheers?”
All five of the parties in Finland’s new coalition government are led by women.
Four of the party leaders, including the prime minister, are under the age of 35.
Britain has so far refused to take back any adults from the al-Hol, although it recently repatriated a small number of British orphans whose parents were killed in Syria.
Save the Children estimates there are still around 60 British children in Syria and has called on the Government to bring them all home.
Sanna Marin became prime minster when she was sworn in this week as the head of a coalition whose four other parties are all led by women, three of them in their 30s.