“Asylum seekers will learn more about sexual norms,” reads the headline of the provocatively creative front page of Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. The national newspaper, based in western Denmark, reports that the Danish Red Cross wants to expand education programs for asylum seekers to include what it calls “adult education.”
Anne la Cour Vågen, head of the Red Cross’ Asylum Department, emphasizes that the new program was not prompted by outrage at recent high-profile reports of sexual assaults in Germany and other European countries by mobs of Muslim immigrants, as the plan for the extended education was set in motion in December.
One of the driving factors behind the project was the demand from asylum seekers to be better informed about relations between men and women in Denmark. Torben Gregeren, who oversees 10 of the country’s refugee centers, told Jyllands-Posten that he has seen a growing urgency to inform asylum seekers from other countries of sexual norms in Denmark, and has already introduced a separate lesson plan called “Kærlighed,” Danish for “love.”
The racy hour-glass curves of the front page is not the first notable graphic touch of Jyllands-Posten, which is best known for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad a decade ago that set off weeks of violence from angry Muslims around the world.
