Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir – Iceland’s Youngest Female Minister of Justice

It was such a pleasant surprise to have Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, the Minister of Justice in Iceland, as my guest this week. She leads quite a busy life as a Parliamentarian and Minister, and it was great she was able to find time to chat.

During the interview, Áslaug Arna shares the positives and negatives of being in this position of power at such a young age and as a woman. Some of the other topics we talk about are the events that led up to her becoming the Minister of Justice, gender based discrimination in the workplace (including within Parliament), about refugees seeking asylum in Iceland, and more. I gained so much insight into Iceland through this episode and I’m excited to share this interview with you.

GIVEAWAY – Enter to Win One of Andri Snær’s Books!!

I’m giving away three of Andri Snær’s books, which are below.

1. On Time & Water
2. LoveStar
3. The Story of the Blue Planet

To enter win one of the books, all you have to do is leave a positive review for the All Things Iceland podcast (you can use this link to easily do it), take a screenshot of your review, and send that screenshot to me in an email at jewells(at)fromforeigntofamiliar(dot)com. If you have already left a review for the podcast, please just send me a screenshot of that review.

The Questions I asked Áslaug Arna During the Interview

1. Can you talk a bit about your experience in the police force?

1. It seems that you started out being involved in your party, Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (Independence party), quite young. Did you always know that you wanted to be a politician?

1. Were you inspired or influenced by your father, who is a supreme court lawyer in Iceland, to study law?

1. When appointed, you became the second youngest minister in Icelandic history and the youngest female minister. Do you feel like people assume you are too young for the job and/or inexperienced?

1. Back in 2017, you were on Kastljós talking about gender based discrimination in the work place. You shared that you had received unwanted sexual comments. Rather, you received it for having sexual relations with men in your party. Do you feel that gender based discrimination is still a problem in Parliament and in other workplaces in Iceland?

1. I remember just around the time you were appointed, there was a scandal going on with the National Police Commissioner. What was it like just starting this job and already having this national scandal to deal with?

1. How do you deal with so much public criticism or scrutiny when you have made a decision about something that many don’t agree with?

1. What do you do to relieve the inevitable stress that comes along with your job? –

1. Recently, you proposed a bill that would abolish the naming committee in Iceland. Why do you want to get rid of this committee? –
2. Aslaug Arna on opening the country up so more foreigners can live and work here

1. Can you explain, without going into detail about individual refugee cases, what makes it difficult for the Icelandic government to allow these people to stay in the country?

1. What advice do you have for people that want to get involved in politics?
2. What is your favorite Icelandic word or phrase?

Join The All Things Iceland Patreon Community

Some of you might be aware that one of my goals for the podcast is to travel around Iceland more to interview different people in each region. In July, I set up the All Things Iceland community on Patreon. It’s a membership platform that was founded in 2013. It allows for creators like me to provide exclusive content to listeners like you in exchange for a monthly subscription.

Each month I am doing Ask Me Anything videos, Live Chats, and Folklore Friday each week. Sometimes I do updates about my life in Iceland. I do not share this content on any other channel. The support from my patrons on the All Things Iceland community on Patreon will help to evolve All Things Iceland. There are several membership tiers to choose from and each tier has a variety of benefits.

If you would like to join the community, go to patreon.com/allthingsiceland. I look forward to having you join.

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Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega

Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!