Two-thirds of Iceland’s babies are born to unwed mothers, the highest rate of out-of-wedlock births in the world. The country’s culture of single mothers has often caught the attention of foreign media, most recently CNN’s Bill Weir, who explored Iceland’s liberal families on “The Wonder List”, which aired on Sunday.
A short clip from the episode was published on Youtube last week, where Weir interviewes a young Icelandic couple, Bryndís Eva Ásmundsdóttir and Sigurður Eggertsson. According to Vísir, Weir begins his introduction by explaining that “together they have four kids from three other partners and not a drop of guilt or regret”.
“One of the main reasons I wanted to come here is that I read this startling statistic that Iceland leads the world in unwed mothers,” the host explains. Prompting Bryndís to reply in surprise: “That’s the main reason you wanted to come? We have glaciers and volcanoes!”
Bryndís adds: “You have this horrible term in English, “broken families”, which means that if you get divorced, something is broken. But that’s not the way it is in Iceland at all. I think it’s because we live in such a s mall and secure environment and women have so much freedom and you can chose your life.”
Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum’s rankings for gender equality for the past six years, followed by three other Nordic countries: Norway, Finland and Sweden.
Two-thirds of Iceland’s babies are born to unwed mothers, the highest rate of out-of-wedlock births in the world. The country’s culture of single mothers has often caught the attention of foreign media, most recently CNN’s Bill Weir, who explored Iceland’s liberal families on “The Wonder List”, which aired on Sunday.
A short clip from the episode was published on Youtube last week, where Weir interviewes a young Icelandic couple, Bryndís Eva Ásmundsdóttir and Sigurður Eggertsson. According to Vísir, Weir begins his introduction by explaining that “together they have four kids from three other partners and not a drop of guilt or regret”.
“One of the main reasons I wanted to come here is that I read this startling statistic that Iceland leads the world in unwed mothers,” the host explains. Prompting Bryndís to reply in surprise: “That’s the main reason you wanted to come? We have glaciers and volcanoes!”
Bryndís adds: “You have this horrible term in English, “broken families”, which means that if you get divorced, something is broken. But that’s not the way it is in Iceland at all. I think it’s because we live in such a s mall and secure environment and women have so much freedom and you can chose your life.”
Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum’s rankings for gender equality for the past six years, followed by three other Nordic countries: Norway, Finland and Sweden.
