(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Storting representative Inga Marte Thorkildsen (SV) is very critical of the Swedes' attitude towards prostitution and criminalization of hospitality customers.
Last week she was a panelist during a seminar on trafficking and prostitution organized by the Nordic Council in Sweden.
Sweden decided several years ago to criminalize whore customers, something Thorkildsen noticed.
- It is positive that Sweden has drawn attention to the responsibility of whore customers, not least when we see that attitudes such as "men must have what they must have" still exist. But they have the dog all over and run pure missionary work for criminalization, says Thorkildsen, who felt like a lone swallow in his opposition to the criminalization of prostitutes.
When she said during the panel debate that she thought it was questionable that they would not evaluate the Criminal Code in light of the prostitutes' well-being, she was met with head-shattering condemnation.
- It did not fall into good soil. But how can they get themselves to missionize for criminalization when they do not know what consequences it has for the girls, asks the SV politician.
When asked why she believes there are so few counter-notions to criminalization in Sweden, she points to the Social Democrats' strong position and dominance of social debates in our neighboring country.
- They believe prostitution and the law against prostitutes apply to all women. Therefore, they are not interested in how the effect is for the prostitutes, says Thorkildsen.
She also says that everyone at the seminar was concerned about Lilja's fate, the main character in the Swedish film “Lilja 4-ever”, which is about so-called “human trafficking” and how an Eastern European girl who is tricked into Sweden where she is held captive as a prostitute .
- But trafficking is a lot of difference, something Fafo has stated in a report. It's not just about the poor battered girl. Then everything becomes very emotional. Because you will at least be for criminalization if you only see "Lilja 4-ever", Thorkildsen thinks.
She is also very critical of the way the Swedes reacted to her request to let Gitte – the prostitute woman who debated criminalization with SV's women political leader in last week's edition of Ny Tid – be silenced in the panel during the conference.
- When I tried to get Gitte involved, they replied that the seminar should be about trafficking, and not prostitution. We were therefore refused, on the grounds that it was not relevant to have a prostitute on the panel. But the first thing they said when the seminar started was that one must not distinguish between prostitution and traffickeing, says an upset Thorkildsen, who has a strong feeling that there were substitute motives for saying no to prostitute Gitte.
During the seminar, some people quietly came to the SV politician and said they appreciated her counter-arguments against the Swedish Criminal Code. But there were also those who whispered warning words to her ear.
- They said that with my arguments against criminalization of whore customers, I gave arguments to the legalization movement. I experienced this as a way to gag my opinions. I think legalizing prostitution, as in the Netherlands, is one of the worst things I can think of. But that does not mean that I can not believe that criminalization of prostitutes hurts worse for the prostitutes, says Thorkildsen.
