Tri-Service

Norway Has No Plans To Change Nude Bathing Policy

After an officer forced a female soldier to bathe naked with 30 other men and received a stern reprimand because of it, you'd think the Armed Forces would be in a hurry to amend the rules.

Not so in Norway it seems, as the officer in question had his reprimand revoked following an appeal.

To rub salt in the wound, the military made clear that no formal rule changes to bathing would take place.

The incident occured during the autumn of 2011, when the accused officer made 23-year-old Alice Aspelund bathe in the nude together with a group of her male colleagues and in front of other male officers in Bodø, Northern Norway.

Aspelund claimed afterwards she felt abused and would not advise other women to join the army because of the incident.

“I cried and felt sick, and I had problems looking at the male recruits right in front of my eyes,” she told Avis Nordland at the time.

“I can not recommend that other girls go off to the military when it's like that,” she added.

The military has now confirmed, however, that it will not make any changes to its bathing policies.

Alice Aspelund [pictured] said she "felt sick" from the experience.

This leaves the door open for other female soldiers to find themselves in a similar situation to Aspelund’s when Norway's gender-neutral military conscription begins later this year.

“It was a very difficult question on the practice of field hygiene. There are different practices in different units on whether one must undress and do so in the presence of other soldiers,” military attorney Lars Morten Bjørkhold told broadcaster NRK.

Bathing in the Norweigan fjords is common practice for Norway's Armed Forces and new recruits hoping to enlist.

Defence recording and selection in Norway. Newly-arrived soldiers undergo a series of tests and records before going out on the field on Evjemoen exercises and artillery ranges

Norway has previously introduced radical policies pioneering the use of unisex dorms for soldiers. The results surprised many with female soldiers reporting a cut in sexual harassment.

According to Ulla-Britt Lilleaas, co-author of the report "The Army: the vanguard, rear guard and battlefield of equality”, the women reported that sharing a room helped make them "one of the boys".

"To them there was nothing strange about the unisex rooms," she wrote. "They had entered a common mode where gender stereotypes had disappeared, or at least they were less obvious."

More From Forces.tv: 3 Commando Brigade Return to Norway