Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: Sweden’s pronoun battle

Documentaries

Sweden’s battle for a gender-neutral personal pronoun

09/08/2022 GMT

Sweden’s pronoun battle

BBC World Service - Witness History, Sweden’s pronoun battle

How campaigners fought to get ‘hen’ included in Swedish dictionaries.

Swedish campaigners, including Nasim Aghili, battled for years to get the gender-neutral personal pronoun ‘hen’ included in Swedish dictionaries. The word was added in 2015.

Sweden has a long history of championing LGBTQ+ rights. But campaigners spent years battling to get the gender-neutral personal pronoun ‘hen’ included in Swedish dictionaries. The word was finally added in 2015. Maddy Savage spoke to Nasim Aghili from the "queer" art collective Ful, which rallied to get the word recognised. This is a Bespoken Media production for the BBC World Service. 

(Photo: Nasim Aghili. Credit: Thomas Straub)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

Sweden’s pronoun battle

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service