A young woman running for parliament in Sweden has announced that he has quit the race, citing death threats from far-right groups.
Nasteho Mohammed, a 23-year-old Swedish citizen of Somali origin, announced on social media on Tuesday that she has withdrawn her candidacy for MP with Sweden’s Center Party.
“I can’t bear to be politically active. How long can I hold on when it goes so far that I get death threats?” Nasteho wrote on Instagram. Mohamed added that the threats came from anti-immigrant and far-right groups.
Nasteho Mohamed came to political prominence in Sweden in 2020 when she claimed that the closed-off clan structure in her native Somalia also permeated Sweden. Her statement sparked much debate among the Somali and Swedish communities.
She made the statement in response to a man who ordered her to clean the toilets at the Somali community centre in Borlänge.
Mohamed told the man that If he wanted to continue living in the clan system and oppress women, he was welcome to return to Somalia but could not practice that part of the culture in Sweden.
Since then, she has appeared prominently in Swedish politics as an active member of the Centerpartiet, a centrist liberal party. She campaigned to fight for women’s rights, especially for Somalis, and fight against tribalism in Sweden.
Nasteho was born in Somalia but moved to Sweden at eight years old. She works at The Centre Women of Sweden, one of Sweden’s most prominent political women’s associations.
