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#utanskyddsnät (#withoutsafetynet) organises girls, women, and transpeople who have suffered GBV in connection with addiction, sexual services for compensation, and criminality. As a consequence of this, many also have experienced homelessness and the additional vulnerability to the violence this creates.

Some of our members are currently using drugs or selling sex but many have left it behind. The organisation works against stigma, with peer support, political work, activism, and raising awareness

During the #metoo-wave in Sweden in 2017, we published a manifesto. Here is an excerpt.

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“Dear Welfare State!

That embraces everyone. Or does it? Do we also matter? Or is everything our own fault?

We are the ones who act wrong, speak wrong, and are in the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time and therefore find it difficult to get the help we need when we need it. Whether it is a sheltered accommodation when we are hunted, the care of an emergency room when we are injured or the security of the judiciary when we have been raped.

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The man had tied me to my stomach with my hands and feet back on my back. He was stupid enough to shoot it all while I was lying there, he spat and painted on me and called me a whore one moment and goddess of love the next. Not only that, he filmed everything. Because heroin is expensive, this was his source of income. To take home women, drug them and use them according to what his customers wanted him to do. For a long time, it was hard for me to call it rape. The night lasted five to seven hours and now after a year, I am more disappointed in our legal system than in the perpetrator. The perpetrator was arrested but released after three days, the pre-trial was a disaster. 

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I have been denied help in women’s shelters when I felt my life had been threatened. I do not dare go to detox, where I have had to stand naked, together with men, in a small enclosed ward. In homelessness, I have had to pay dearly to get a roof over my head and drugs. 

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Women living outside society are without power, networks, resources, assets, and capital. No demonstrations are being held for our rights, no candles are lit for women sleeping in toilets. We, who write this, have managed to break away, have an income, and have regained some of our human worth, but our traumas are often unprocessed, our reports ignored, our perpetrators go free, and our rights are non-existent. We have not asked to become addicted to alcohol and drugs. We do not have to blame ourselves for all violence. We are not guilty of the terrible abuse we have been exposed to. #metoo opened a door, and out poured centuries of silenced abuse. Group after group stepped forward with testimonials. Suddenly it became possible for us to make our voices heard. Suddenly there was a chance to be believed.”

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Unfortunately, the violence didn’t stop just because we organised ourselves. Many members and sisters out on the streets are continuously subjected to GBV. Some have even been murdered. 

One of our members was thrown out of a halfway house because she had taken drugs. She missed the lockup time at the shelter. Instead, one of her male friends, who she hoped would let her sleep at his house, raped, and beat her. Fleeing the house in the middle of the night, she met two men. One raped her, one slit her throat. She left a small daughter behind.

One of our friends floated around the city as we do when we don’t have a home. She was scared of some men and repeatedly told friends she was afraid of being killed. One day we read about a woman who had been beaten to death. The next day it was quiet in the media. We understood that it was one of us. The violence against us is expected, and the page is quickly turned. Later it was confirmed it was our friend.

I was raped by a man whose sofa I was allowed to spend the night on as a homeless. I was sleeping after taking many pills and woke in the middle of the night from having the man on top of me and inside me. I tried to push him away, but I was too out of it and just kept passing out. Afterwards, he gave me presents and after two days I rather slept outside than stay with him.

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Back to our manifesto:

“We are tired of not being seen and we are tired of being ashamed. The shame belongs to our perpetrators, the shame belongs to the authorities who let us down, and the shame belongs to a society that over and over again confirms that we are completely unprotected. Now we have gathered. We extend our hands to our sisters and siblings still living in addiction, on the street, in crime and in prostitution. We carry the same experiences. We carry the same desire to be just human.”

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~We are deeply grateful for #utanskyddsnät (#withoutsafetynet) and their members for sharing the excerpt of their manifesto, including testimonials, showcasing a population group, women without homes, that is often times neglected and forgotten whereas the same human rights are applicable to them and should be ensured.