After a Polish education official claimed that Swedish preschools have special rooms in which teachers take children to masturbate them, Sweden’s embassy in Warsaw has issued a statement denying the “absurd and false claim”.
Pojawiły się absurdalne i nieprawdziwe twierdzenia na temat szwedzkich przedszkoli. To ubolewania godne, że dezinformacja na temat Szwecji jest szerzona w ten sposób. Przy tej okazji warto pamiętać, jak ważne jest sprawdzanie faktów i poszukiwanie wiarygodnych źródeł informacji.
— Ambasada Szwecji (@AmbSzweWarszawa) November 21, 2023
The remarks were made by Barbara Nowak, the education superintendent for Małopolska, a province of 3.4 million people in southern Poland centred around the city of Kraków. The national government appoints one such official in each of Poland’s 16 provinces, where they are tasked with overseeing schools.
Nowak, a controversial and outspoken figure, was asked in an interview with news website Wirtualna Polska about claims commonly made by her and other Polish conservatives that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is seeking to “sexualise” children.
“The WHO outlines the aims to quickly interest young people in their bodies and in the pleasure of artificially aroused sexuality,” she answered. “These groups claim that the easiest way to relieve a small child’s emotions is through masturbation.”
“In Swedish preschools there are special rooms where the teacher goes with a child and masturbates them,” Nowak continued. “They then know that they can also masturbate on their own.”
Gdy myślisz, że już niewiele cię zaskoczy: "W szwedzkich przedszkolach są specjalne pokoje, do których nauczycielka idzie z dzieckiem i go masturbuje. On potem wie, że też sam może się masturbować" – mówi Barbara Nowak, małopolska kurator oświaty… https://t.co/vrRhR5a5nQ
— Maciej Zborowski (@ZborowskiMaciej) November 20, 2023
When the interviewer expressed scepticism about the claim, Nowak said she had received this “information from teachers there [in Sweden]”, including “a Polish woman working in a preschool in Sweden [who] told me about it and she was terrified”.
The official then also claimed that a sex education textbook in Germany sets children the task of “planning the operation of the brothel so that people of any sexual orientation are satisfied”.
Poland's justice minister has claimed that Spain is legalising bestiality and that the Polish opposition wants to ban meat.
He cited this as evidence of the threat posed by "the virus of leftism". In fact, both claims are misleading https://t.co/t8U7KwpYqm
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 20, 2023
Nowak’s remarks were quickly investigated and rejected by Wirtualna Polska in a separate article. The website spoke to Katarzyna Tubylewicz, a Polish journalist and writer who lives in Sweden and has published a book on the sex lives of Swedes.
She described Nowak’s claims as “complete nonsense”. “The idea that sexual harassment of children in preschools could be sanctioned by law and introduced as a rule of normal operation is simply horrendous stupidity,” explained Tubylewicz.
Polish-born teacher Tomasz Góral, who has lived and worked in Stockholm for 17 years, likewise told news website Gazeta.pl that Nowak’s claims are false. He said that his Swedish colleagues and his own children’s preschool teachers had been stunned when they learned what Nowak had said.
Zapytaliśmy Szwedów o przedszkolne "pokoje do masturbacji" kuratorki Barbary Nowak. Jak myślicie, co powiedzieli?;) https://t.co/W2WTQJ05Qq
— Rafał Madajczak (@OjciecRedaktor) November 21, 2023
This afternoon, Sweden’s embassy in Warsaw issued an official rejection of Nowak’s “absurd and untrue claims about Swedish preschools”.
“It is deplorable that disinformation about Sweden is spread in this way,” wrote the embassy. “It is worth remembering how important it is to check facts and look for reliable sources of information.”
Nowak, who has served as Małopolska’s school superintended since 2016, has been accused of spreading false information on a number of previous occasions, including when she claimed in 2022 that coronavirus vaccines are an “experiment” with unknown consequences.
The school superintendent in one of Poland's largest provinces says Covid vaccines are an "experiment" whose "consequences are not fully established"
Her remarks were condemned by the health and education ministers, and have led to calls for her to resign https://t.co/FIthgvHNsq
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 7, 2022
The national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government that appointed Nowak has also led a campaign against what it claims are attempts to “sexualise” children.
In August, the PiS majority in parliament approved legislation to ban organisations that “promote the sexualisation of children” from schools and preschools.
However, PiS lost its parliamentary majority at last month’s elections and is now likely to be replaced in government by a more liberal coalition of opposition parties that has pledged to “depoliticise” the education system.
A law banning groups that “promote the sexualisation of children” from schools has been approved by parliament
The conservative government says such measures are necessary to protect children. But NGOs say it is a further attempt to restrict sex education https://t.co/hd1TFnoKLc
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 18, 2023
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Main image credit: Frankie Fouganthin/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
