Parents from the Muslim community with an active stance at the nationwide protest against anti-family legislation in Bulgaria

Muslim women at the protest against the anti-family ideology on Saturday

More than 160 000 parents from the entire country gathered on Saturday, September 27, this year in front of the Council of Ministers to express in another one protest their social dissatisfaction with the anti-family laws that will enter into force from the next year. Among them were also representatives of the Muslim community in our country.

With a solid police presence, the protesting people expressed their concerns that the introduced into the Bulgarian legislation amendments threaten the family as an institution and follow the example of the Norwegian agency “Barnevernet”. The parents categorically oppose against the seizing the state’s functions from foreign and private NGOs and companies, which is foreseen in some legislative amendments, entering into force from January 1. The concerns of the families in Bulgaria are also related to the introduction of the gender ideology and early sexual education in the kindergartens and schools.  

“What makes me worry in terms of the new legislative amendments is that they threaten the family and the family values. They threaten the child-parent relationship. That is why we are obliged to protect our children, to say “No!” to the early sexual and gender education, which entirely contradicts to the Islamic moral values.” – confidently states Saliha Muhammed – a Muslim mother who came to the protest with her children.

The parents categorically declared that they do not stand against the social sphere and against the protection of the children but not in the direction in which it has been currently worked.

“I am here, at the protest, because the prepared amendments in the social sphere naturally make us, the parents, worry about the future of our children. Everything that happens, is a great stress for the smallest part of the state, and this is the family. If the family ties are shaken, the state will also be shaken. Because everything is one whole! – said Kadrie Chakar as well, another Muslim woman and mother of two children, who also joined the protest on Saturday. 

Parents from different Bulgarian cities came specially and organized for the nationwide protest in the capital

According to the official statement of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy “The new legislative texts aim to reform the system of the social services in order to make them to respond more adequately to the needs of the people, to be more accessible and to improve their quality. The amendments aim to reflect the closing of all homes for children and to improve the coordination during the protection of the children because it is not a responsibility only of the social workers. Most of the amendments in the Law on Child Protection are terminological and come from the change in the definition of the social services.”

Despite of that the parents are concerned that the prepared legislative amendments, according to which the social workers will be able to take a child out from a family only because of a signal, including anonymous, to enter homes and to search in them without a court order, to make mandatory prescriptions for the childcare, and also worry that any child may be considered as a “child at risk” based on unclear criteria.

The families expressed their readiness to continue protesting until their statements are heard.

Author: L. Chausheva