When thousands of demonstrators marched through Oslo and other Norwegian cities last weekend, their speeches, banners and other appeals highlighted violence against women. It was, after all, International Women’s Day, and news over the past year has shown that such violence is a bigger issue than ever.
The murder last year of a young immgrant woman working in Oslo at a residential facility for troubled youth topped the agenda at the largest demonstration in the Norwegian capital. “Say her name – Tamima” read the event’s lead banner, while others stressed violence against women by male partners. That’s also been in the news, as the trial of Marius Borg Høiby, son of the crown princess, continues in Oslo. Høiby is charged with dozens of counts of violence against women including rape. The crown princess herself is also under pressure over revelations of her three-year friendship with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Violence in close relationships is a huge social problem,” one of the speakers at the Oslo demonstration, commentator Veronica Simoné Mildestveit, told state broadcaster NRK, She stressed how how fully 10 percent of all women have been assaulted by male partners.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
