Sexual advances or just friendly gestures? In a bid to prevent violence against women, Norway is offering asylum seekers courses in how to interpret mores in a country that may seem astonishingly liberal to them.
A debate on integration has flared in Germany after New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne, where more than 100 women reported being sexually assaulted or robbed by men described as being of Arab or North African origin.
Questions are also being raised about how to integrate men from patriarchal societies into Europe, where emancipated women dress skimpily, go out, and drink and party.
"Our aim is to help asylum seekers avoid mistakes as they discover Norwegian culture," explained Linda Hagen of Hero, a private company that runs 40 percent of Norway's reception centres for asylum seekers.
"There's no single cultural code to say what is good or bad behaviour because we want a free society," she said.
"There has to be tolerance for attitudes that may be seen as immoral by some traditional or religious norms."
After what she called a "wave of rapes" committed mostly by foreigners in the southwestern town of Stavanger between 2009 and 2011, Hero launched a course at some of its centres that touches on cultural differences regarding women.
The course, which Hero has tacked onto the immigration agency's broader, mandatory introduction programme to Norway, addresses the problem of sexual assault, using concrete examples for the participants to discuss.
"It could be an 18-year-old guy who says he's surprised by the interest some Norwegian girls are showing in him. He assumes they want to sleep with him," Hagen said.
"So the group leader will ask him: Who are these girls? Where do you meet them? How do you know it is sex they want? Not all women in Norway are the same," she added.
To avoid stigmatising immigrants, the role of sexual predator in these scenarios may be assigned to a Norwegian. "We turn the roles around a bit because there are rapists in all ethnic groups," Hagen said.
Xenophobic blogs are however rife with reports of violent attacks allegedly committed by foreigners, including a November incident in which a 12-year-old girl was physically molested by two underage asylum seekers.
