Victoria Kawesa | |
---|---|
Leader of Feminist Initiative | |
In office 26 March 2017 – 15 September 2017 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Uganda | 12 April 1975
Political party | Feminist Initiative |
Victoria Kawesa (born 12 April 1975) is a Swedish politician and former leader of the Feminist Initiative party. In March 2017, she was elected the leader of the party, along with Gudrun Schyman.[1][2] Kawesa was the first black party leader in Swedish history.[3] In September 2017, she resigned, citing personal reasons.[1][2] Kawesa was charged and found guilty of copyright violation.[4] She is a former lecturer at Södertörn University.[5]
Kawesa came to Sweden as a nine-year-old with her family who had fled from the war in Uganda, and the family resided in Tensta outside of Stockholm.[6]
In April 2017, a police investigation was commenced against Kawesa after she was accused of plagiarizing a doctoral work and presented it as her own research, for which she was given an admonition by Linköping University.[7][8] She has previously (2013) been reported to have plagiarized another researcher's project application.[9] Kawesa was found guilty by the Crown Court of Stockholm and sentenced to 15,000 kr fines and 6000 kr in damages.[10][11]
In 2018, Kawesa was charged with assault after hitting a man in the face and kicking him at a Stockholm subway station. The incident occurred at 17:52, 11 January 2018, during which Kawesa had attempted to walk through the subway barrier without using her Access card. Kawesa claims self defence after the man first attacked her.[12] Surveillance footage showed otherwise, and Kawesa was convicted of battery, given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay a fine of 36,000 Swedish kronor.[13]