Put in plain terms, a 'no' is no longer required from the victim. Instead, a simple lack of 'yes' should suffice to bring charges against the perpetrator.
"Consent must be expressed either verbally or through body language. The victim does not have to explicitly say no. Inaction cannot be considered voluntary participation. Additionally, one must also be able to reconsider, even if they previously said yes," Mari Heidenborg, chairperson of the Sexual Offences Committee told Swedish state broadcaster SVT.
By Heidenborg's own admission, a sexual law based on the moral duty of care, tenderness and free will should give a better perspective of what sexual intercourse should be in a modern and equal society.
Additionally, the scale of penalties will be widened with the rubric of "particularly serious crimes," which may yield a prison term of up to ten years. These involve, above all, sexual offences against children.
Whereas hailed by Swedish feminists and human rights activists as "having a real impact on society's norms," the proposals also triggered criticism. According to counselor Baharak Vaziri, who runs her own law firm, the new legislation may shift the focus to irrelevant and peripheral matters, which in turn may lead to intimate and offensive questions to the victim during interrogation.
"It will be hard for the victim to sit in a courtroom, potentially facing more intrusive questions than today," Vaziri told SVT.
At present, Sweden remains at the top end of reported rape cases. In 2014, there were 69 rape cases per 100,000 population reported, which ranks among the world's highest. Whereas the increase in rape cases is often blamed on the influx of immigrants who not necessarily share basic Swedish values, there is no official evidence to support the cause, since the Swedish Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) stopped releasing detailed data on rape committed by immigrants in 1996. In Sweden, it is considered incorrect to stress the criminals' ethnic or religious background.
