Top Norwegian military officials have apologised after a female soldier from Oslo was forced to bathe naked in a freezing lake with 30 other male personnel.
Alice Asplund, 23, reported the incident to local newspaper Avisa Nordland in September after her entire regiment was told to strip naked and wash themselves in a lake following field exercises.
“I asked if I could keep on my boxer shorts and sports bra, but the officer (who was not identified) said ‘no’, everyone had to be naked,” Asplund told NRK. “Then I asked if I could move to another part of the lake, away from all the men.”
All her requests were denied, with the lieutenant in charge insisting that everyone had to be treated equally. “I felt sick, and had big problems facing the men afterwards,” she told Avisa Nordland. “I couldn’t believe this was happening in the Norwegian military in 2011.”
The army has apologised after the incident received coverage in the national press, and the officer in question will now face disciplinary action.
“This is totally unacceptable,” Lieutenant Col Bent-Ivan Myhre told NRK. “None of our soldiers shall be forced into naked bathing in the presence of others. In this case, the situation went far beyond the military’s norms. We apologise for that,” he said.