Anna Sjödin
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Social Democratic
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, , contesting elections as 'the Workers' Party – the Social Democrats' , or sometimes referred to just as 'the Social Democrats' and most commonly as Sossarna ; is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1889...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, and elected president of the Social Democratic Youth League
Swedish Social Democratic Youth League
The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League is a branch of the Swedish social democratic party Socialdemokraterna and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation...
from August 3, 2005 to December 16, 2006. She was also elected vice president of the International Union of Socialist Youth
International Union of Socialist Youth
The International Union of Socialist Youth encompasses socialist, social democratic and Labour Party youth organizations from more than 100 states of the world...
(IUSY) at the congress in January 2006. Sjödin is the second woman, after Anna Lindh
Anna Lindh
Ylva Anna Maria Lindh was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, Chairman of the Social Democratic Youth League 1984-1990, Member of Parliament 1982-1985 and 1998-2003...
, to be elected president of the Social Democratic Youth League.
Family life
Anna Sjödin is born in Össeby-Garn in Stockholm CountyStockholm County
Stockholm County is a county or län on the Baltic sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. Stockholm County is divided by the historic provinces of Uppland and Södermanland...
and was raised outside of Enköping. She played rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
in her youth and participated in four games for the Swedish national team in 1994. After completing her secondary education
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
Sjödin spent one year working at a health care facility in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and after that some time at a Kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. After returning to Sweden she joined the Social Democratic Youth League at the age of 19, and moved to Umeå in order to study social work and public administration at Umeå University
Umeå University
Umeå University is a university in Umeå in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders....
. After having completed her studies Sjödin worked at a shelter for battered women.
Political career
Anna Sjödin was first elected chairperson for the Social Democratic Youth League in VästerbottenVästerbotten
', English exonym: West Bothnia, is a province or landskap in the north of Sweden. It borders Ångermanland, Lapland, Norrbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is famous for the cheese with the same name as the province.- Administration :...
, and in 2001 was elected in to the board of the Social Democratic Youth League. In August 2005 Sjödin was unanimously elected as the new chairperson of the Social Democratic Youth League after Ardalan Shekarabi
Ardalan Shekarabi
Ardalan Shekarabi is a Swedish politician and former chairman for the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League.-References:...
who chose not to stand for re-election after several scandals and divisive battles. In December 2006 she had to resign from the chairperson position after found guilty of behaving bad when drunk. See below. Later she has taken a position as a headmaster of a Folk high school
Folk high school
Folk high schools are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal...
in Vindeln
Vindeln
Vindeln is a locality and the seat of Vindeln Municipality in Västerbotten County, Sweden with 2,356 inhabitants in 2005.- References :...
, North Sweden.
Drunken Bar Fight
On January 29, 2006 Sjödin was arrested by the police outside the pub Crazy Horse in Östermalm in StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. According to Babak Jamei, one of the bouncers
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
, a drunk Sjödin not only assaulted him and other bouncers but also used derogatory words—alluding to the fact that he was an immigrant. Sjödin, however, claims that the bouncers assaulted her and her friends. She had to spend the night in the constabulary. The prosecutor rejected Sjödins allegations, but continued investigating the allegations made by the bouncers.
During the trial Sjödin continued to claim that the bouncer had screamed profanities at her and her friend and that he was aggressive, but she also admitted that she had drunk a couple of strong beers, a third of a bottle of wine and one tequila. The barman had determined that Sjödin was too drunk to be served, and called the bouncers to eject Sjödin and her friend. During the trial, witnesses testified that Sjödin, who is a former rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
player, had used violence in resisting her ejection from the pub.
On October 12, 2006, the Stockholm district court found Sjödin guilty of assaulting the bouncer "insult
Insult
An insult is an expression, statement which is considered degrading and offensive. Insults may be intentional or accidental...
" , "taking the law into one's own hands" , "assaulting a person holding legal authority" and "violent resistance" . She was sentenced to pay a fine of 120 days wages at 300 kronor
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
per day (36,000 kronor in total). Sjödin was also ordered to pay 5,500 kronor in damages to Babak Jamei, the doorman. The court found that Sjödin had used words of "racist characteristic", she had called the guard "bloody blackskull" and had said that people such as him were not welcome in Sweden. The court said that there was strong evidence that Sjödin had challenged the bouncer's authority. The court also found that Sjödin had ripped Jamei's badge from his jacket and taken it with her into a police car. Sjödin has decided to appeal the verdict to the Svea Court of Appeal
Svea Court of Appeal
The Svea Court of Appeal , located in Stockholm, is one of six appellate courts in the Swedish legal system. It was founded in 1614 and was the highest court in Sweden until 1789, when the Supreme Court of Sweden was established....
. The Court of Appeal decided not to try this case (the Court of Appeal can deny cases when the penalty is a fine). She has said she will appeal this denial, since in this case it is not only a fine, but a political career at stake.http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,906437,00.html