Ever since Julian Assange�s rape accusations Sweden has been portrayed, for better or for worse, as a country with the strictest rape laws in the world. This seems strange if you are a foreign woman living in Sweden, because in actuality, the laws play out very differently, if you are to believe the newspapers.
So here is the latest rape case that was overturned by the Swedish Supreme Court, because in Sweden, �no� is not enough.
A 15-year-old girl goes to an apartment with a friend and meets a group of guys. Her friend gets very drunk; the girl does not (if she had, she might have been able to get a rape conviction). She consents to have sex with one of the guys, but then he invites his friends in and 5 more people have sex with her.
She tells the police she said no, that one of them held her down, but she was too afraid to do anything. She had not met these people before. She was alone. She was 15. She said �No�
The men threatened the girl on social media. There were reported videos made of the act.
But none of that matters. Why? Because the girl did not show enough physical resistance to the act to make it rape. By not fighting back, by not being injured by her attackers, she was thus giving her consent. Her �no�, even if the court believed it, was not enough.
She had no bruises, she was not too drunk to defend herself, she is to blame for the situation because she did not defend herself.
This is what rape law looks like in Sweden. Yes, there is a new law, but this case was covered by the old.
When are we going to start protecting our kids? When are we going to start saying to them that you are not responsible for other people sexually assaulting you.
Sweden is not a country where feminists have won the battle. It is a country where we still have a long way to go.
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