Nora’s sisters seminar - Al Kasaba Theater & Cinematique / Ramallah
Speech by: Ms Inga Marte Thorkildsen, Norwegian MP
Ladies and gentlemen,
thank you for this opportunity to tell you about women in politics in Norway. I would like to start by saying a little bit about the current situation in Palestine. As a Norwegian, born into freedom and wealth, it feels enormously important to come here. More than ever, the outside world needs to see with its own eyes what you experience as a consequence of the occupation. Its upsetting and I whish the international community would respond in a different way than they do now. When the days feel unbearable and you want to give up, please remember that we are lots of people trying to change the international agenda, trying to keep your struggle in the minds of ordinary people. And I believe it is possible to put change forward. And I really hope that women and youth will be allowed to take important positions in the political and civil system, because true democracy comes from representation of all parts of a society.
I was in Ramallah and Gaza eight years ago, a few months before the Intifada, to discuss women’s issues with Palestinian women’s organizations. It makes me sad and angry to see what’s happened since then – and that the international society seems more and more passive. The people of Palestine have a special place in my heart, and Palestinian women even more so. I grew up with parents committed to the message of a Free Palestine. Since I was a girl child - even since I was only a small baby lying at my father’s chest - I joined the demonstrations on the 1st of May (the International Workers´ day) at the section saying “Free Palestine!” Now, as a politician, I always focus on the occupation on this day.
We will never forget you.
It fills me with pride to be part of a global movement for women´s rights. It’s really special to know that at the same time as Norwegian women and men celebrate and demonstrate on this very day, people in Palestine do the same. And in different parts of the world, millions of people engage in a world-wide struggle for women’s human rights.
The very message of the International Women’s Day is Sister solidarity. Women must stand together. We must fight for the right to be seen as human beings, not as dolls without intellectual capacity, subjectivity and freedom of choice. Nora’s sisters must unite.
In A Doll’s House, Nora says to her husband Torvald Helmer: “I think I am first and foremost a human being, just as you are”. In Norway, that was revolutionary at the time Ibsen wrote the play. We know that this is still revolutionary thoughts in large parts of the world, including in this part.
In Norway a lot of the young girls and boys don’t understand why we celebrate and demonstrate on the 8th of March. They lack historical knowledge and it disturbs me. One of the most dangerous paths we can follow is the path of ignorance. Taking for granted what people have suffered to achieve.
My mother was feminist. She fought for her own rights and for the rights of future generations. Through political struggle she gave me freedom – more than she had had for herself. I feel great respect and pride for what women like her did for women like my self. And a feel a great responsibility to make sure that the next generation of women have even more freedoms. I also hope that we’ll be able to change the role of men, so that the new generation of men will see themselves as gender as well as individuals. So that they will widen the notion of masculinity and break free from the narrow definitions of what it is to be a man. So that they’ll see – in the end – that equality means freedom for everyone. Nora’s sisters and brothers must unite and fight for universal human rights, equal possibilities and freedoms for every individual.
Let me say a little bit more about my experiences (I like to be personal in my speeches. I hope that’s fine with you). I was engaged in politics through engagement in the pupils´ council at my school. As a protest against collective punishment – which you experience every day – I started to oppose the way my school was run. After a racist fire I joined the Socialist Youth League. After some years I was asked to be on the top of the list of my party, The Socialist Left Party, running for parliament in the elections of 2001. The day after September 11, I became Member of Parliament.
My party is feminist, ecologist and socialist. It had as a slogan: “Prioritize children and youth”. As a consequence they felt a need to make their nice words come true in practice, and recruited a lot of young candidates for the elections. When I was elected I was 25. In a way I was on a quota. My party practices gender quotas, positive discrimination, as a means to become more representative. In my party group there were two MPs of 23 and one of 24 years of age. The conservative party also had some young parliamentarians after this ground-breaking election. I cooperated with one of the conservative MPs, a girl of my age. We talked about our joint experiences, e.g. when it came to dressing. It was hard to know how to dress, especially when we were young and uncomfortable with the mainstream clothing for a mainstream politician in his 50s. We received some criticism for our ways of dressing and the media was preoccupied with it for a while. Also, some of the old guys behaved in a disrespectful manner. It was annoying! We had been elected on the exact same grounds as they had; we were 100 per cent Members of Parliament. After a year we were interviewed by one of the largest newspapers in Norway. The journalist asked both for the best and for the worst parts. He chose only to refer the worst. It actually seemed like our first year in Parliament had been a continuous hell, which it hadn’t. Still, it was tough. And it was really important that we stuck together, that we met regularly, debriefed and supported each other. As women we should support each other. Older women must encourage younger women, make them feel safe, give them advice, help them to tackle the difficult situations. When they don’t do it, I think they shoot themselves not only in the leg, but in the head.
By now I have been an MP for six and a half years; I’m in my second term. I’ve been member of three different standing committees. In my first term I was a member of the standing committee on justice, because I wanted to make the issue of violence and sexual abuse of women and children an important issue on top of the political agenda. I was able to make an important contribution in this regard. A was a member of the standing committee on health and care for two years and now I’m a member of the standing committee on energy and the environment. I’m also leader of an antiparliamentarian group working to spread conscience on children’s human rights within the framework of United Nations Convention on Children. Last November we held a children’s hearing in the Parliament. We invited children to come via Save the Children, Norway, and they could ask questions to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finances, the Minister of Education, the Minister of the Environment and Development, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Children and Gender Equality and the Minister of the Municipalities. It was a big success.
Throughout these six years I’ve tried to work according to the spirit of my foremothers. They gave us some important lessons: For instance
1. We are not born as women; we become women (Simone de Beauvoir)
2. Remember to ask “the women’s question”: How does this proposal affect women?
3. The private/personal is political.
I’m especially proud that four of my initiatives are now put into practice:
- Violent men are removed from their houses, even if they own the house. Women and children can stay.
- There is going to be a pilot project where violent men who break the prohibition to visit their victim, can be forced to wear an electric tag warning the victim if they approach them.
- Five so called “Children’s Houses” will open within this year. Here, children who have been victims of sexual abuse or violence can receive all the help and support that they need, including interviews by the police.
- We have started to establish therapy centres for violent and abusive men.
Through an efficient cooperation between the women’s movement/NGOs, parliamentarians like me and women (and men) in government, these initiatives became national policy. It´s important to build networks, to inspire each other, make plans and push forward important steps towards equality.
In the Norwegian parliament there are now 36 % women. The so called progressive party is one of the reasons why the numbers aren’t better. In the Government: 9 men and 10 women! For the first time we have a female Minister of Finances. She is our party leader.
In 1981 we got our first female prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland from the Labour Party. All together she was a PM for ten years. She was on a quota, but she never felt inferior to her male counterparts. I remember having a notice from a newspaper at my desk for several years. It was an interview with a 15 year old asking the following question: “Can a man really be a Prime Minister?” Gro H B has said that ever since she was a little girl she saw the unequal treatment of girls and boys, women and men, and she felt it was unfair. – For me, education, job opportunities and the possibility of combining work with family obligations were central issues, she says. And further: – Also information about sexuality, family planning and the right to decide when and if you should have a baby – also the right to have an abortion, were central to me.
Gro was a doctor, and I think that influenced on her views. She had seen a lot.
Gro´s cabinet was called the Women’s Cabinet, and she broke way for progress for Norwegian women. Kinder gardens, the right to paid leave for the parents for up to one year, the right to be away from work when the children are ill, the right to get your job back after a parental leave, shelters all over Norway for battered women, separate places to take care of victims of violence, more women in the important positions in the private sector – all these rights and freedoms have been realized because women in the parliament, in the government and at the grassroots level have made a common cause. A lot of men have also been committed to this struggle, and I’m so pleased to see that the young generation of boys claim their rights and place as present and caring fathers, wanting to prioritize their families on the expense of their careers. What worries me is this: Minority women, refugee women and trafficked women, migrant women with little contact with the society, with little freedom of choice, being marginalized and kept outside social life. Also, young women who don’t understand why they should take care of the rights they’ve achieved, and who at the same time are subject to a cruel and abusive commercial industry – reducing them to objects, sexual dolls for men to play with. And I worry that women don’t see that sister solidarity is one of the biggest values of all. That we need to fight side by side in solidarity, never ending up as egocentric – full of ourselves – women, not interested in other women’s lives.
I hope you will enjoy this day, and that you will support each other so that Palestinian women – especially young women – can make their voices heard in this cruel world of big politics. Democracy – true democracy – is only when all voices are heard and taken seriously. I don’t believe that there will be peace and progress if only the old guys are to decide what will happen next.
I wish you the best of luck. I’ll always be with you in my thoughts and I’ll try to contribute from my position in Norway.
Thank you!