In a tall, blond government, a small black woman like Nyamko Sabuni was always going to stand out.

It is, though, the former refugee’s outspoken views that have demanded attention in her adopted Sweden, where she wants a ban on the veil for under-15s and compulsory gynaecological checks for all schoolgirls to protect against genital mutilation masquerading as “female circumcision”.

Her views have led to death threats and round-the-clock protection in Europe’s most tolerant country.

Being appointed Minister for Integration and Equality in the right-wing Government provoked a petition signed by 50 Muslim organisations declaring that she “breathed populism and Islamophobia”.

Ms Sabuni, 38, whose mother was a Muslim but who describes herself as “not religious”, is unrepentant. “Arranged marriage is not something recommended by Islam,” she told The Times.

“Nor is genital mutilation. Many people say this is our tradition, our religion. But it is unacceptable, whatever the reason. I will not be scared into silence. I will never accept that women and girls are oppressed in the name of religion.”

Sweden has been good to Ms Sabuni. It welcomed her father and his seven children as political refugees from Congo when she was 12. She studied at Uppsala University, the Swedish Oxbridge, becoming an MP at 32 and marrying a travel agent with whom she has twin boys.

Ms Sabuni has never made any secret of her ambition to be Sweden’s first black Prime Minister. Some see parallels between her and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali refugee who renounced Islam, became a Dutch MP and spoke out against the religion, only to relocate in the US after a row about her asylum application.

“We are compared because we are both young, we are both black, we are both politicians,” Ms Sabuni said. “The mission of Ayaan is to reform Islam. My mission is not to reform Islam, my mission is to say that certain traditions are unacceptable. ”

Mats Wiklund, biographer of Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister, said: “She is detested by the Left but generally admired because she has come so far in life. She is like Hirsi Ali but not as hardline and less careless in her comments. She believes people should take responsibility for their own lives.”

Nowhere is this more evident than in her Government’s belief that Sweden must move away from its generous benefits culture to improve social cohesion and ethnic integration as well as boost the economy.

Some would argue that this country of nine million has already taken its fair share of immigrants, leading to the social tensions behind rioting last month in Malmo.

Ms Sabuni believes that the solution is not fewer migrants but more jobs. The Government pays as much as three-quarters of the starting salary for an immigrant in his or her first job. In another very Swedish solution, she is also pushing for a “Guarantee of Activities” programme that will match the jobless with useful social tasks, such as reading to pupils or helping the elderly.

Her views were formed by the way her own father found work quickly, helping her family to integrate into Swedish life. She now wants the rest of Europe to adopt the same generous approach to asylum-seekers as Sweden, which has taken more Iraqis than any other EU country – an acceptance rate of 90 per cent compared with Britain’s 12 per cent.

“They come to Sweden because they know there is a positive policy. We would rather see the EU start acting the way we do than we have to act like they do.”

Ms Sabuni added that her demand to ban the veil for schoolgirls was a contribution to a debate that the country needed before it reached the same level of anxiety about ethnic integration as Britain.

“The mentality in Britain has been very tolerant and accepting but now you have a problem that suddenly you realised, gosh, there are some values we have to defend,” she said.

“We have not reached that point in Sweden yet and I am saying, let’s not end in a situation where you have to feel panic. Let’s face these issues early, let’s talk about them and address them, before they become established problems.”

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