Author:
Publication: Aftenposten
Date: October 15, 2003
URL: http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=641867
As many as 15 Pakistani-Norwegian
teenagers attacked a 31-year-old man outside his flat Monday night. They
thought he was a journalist who'd written a provocative guide about how
to have sex with young Muslim women.
It was all a case of mistaken identity,
however. The hapless victim simply had the same name as the journalist
who'd written the guide, Baard Torgersen.
The teenage gang did take the trouble
to question his identity when they confronted him on the stairs leading
up to his flat in Oslo.
"They asked whether I was Baard
Torgersen," he told newspaper Aftenposten. "I said that was me, and then
they asked to see my driver's license."
After they examined it, they asked
for even more ID, and then spotted a discount card in his wallet for the
publication "Natt & Dag" (Night and Day), which coincidentally had
published the guide that had angered the Pakistani-Norwegian boys.
That set them off, with flying fists
battering both Torgersen and a neighbour who happened to arrive on the
scene as the fight went on.
The gang had fled by the time police
arrived at the scene. The Baard Torgersen who actually wrote the sex guide
declined to comment on the incident.
His editor, however, claimed the
article that the teenage gang found so offensive was meant to launch a
debate on sexual liberation among Muslim women in Norway.
"There will be fewer mixed marriages
in Norway," said editor Gaute Drevdal of Natt & Dag. "If we don't do
something now, there will be more ghettoes forming."
Drevdal claimed Norway is a society
where "sex comes before romance and romance comes before marriage." A local
Pakistani-Norwegian comedian, Shabana Rehman, said the guide may be considered
"vulgar" but it also is important.
"The main question here is accessibility
and sexual control," Rehman said. "The role of men is changing and it's
interesting that this is often tied to women's sexuality."
Meanwhile, the Baard Torgersen who
was beaten up by the Pakistani-Norwegian gang is shaken by the incident
even though he wasn't badly injured. Police said they'll continue to investigate
the attack.
