Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

The shameful hypocrisy of Sweden’s ‘first feminist government’

A couple of weeks ago I named the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq as my pious political hypocrite of the week, mainly for being silent on her bigoted aunty while strikingly vocal about a total stranger. I’m afraid that I was so overwhelmed by applicants for last week’s award that I have only just emerged from the pile of entries. However, I am now in a position to reveal the latest recipients of this increasingly coveted prize.

Pipping even Speaker John Bercow to the award are the brave sisters of the Swedish government. Here is a photo from earlier this month of Isabella Lovin (Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate and spokesperson of Sweden’s Green Party). In response to Donald Trump’s male-heavy team, Isabella and the sister-hood (pregnant and non-pregnant) recently posed for this photo to signal that the self-declared ‘first feminist government in the world’ will be taking no lectures from the current US President:

Here, by contrast, (courtesy of the excellent UN Watch) is how the Swedish sisterhood behaved when they visited Iran this past weekend:

But who’s to call, hey? On the one hand you have an American President and former Miss Universe competition owner who has done nothing to diminish women’s rights. On the other you have an Iranian President before whom all women must cover, and who presides over a legal system where nine-year old girls can be legally raped and women are regularly hanged from cranes.

The contrasting approaches are emblematic of our stupid, signalling times. To President Trump it’s ‘Hey you, Mr bigot, get off my vagina.’

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in