The first part in the Millennium trilogy is included a list as compiled by the Florida Department of Education.
It lists books that have been banned by various Florida school boards following citizen complaints, and the list can be used by school districts when selecting what materials students should have access to.
Banned in Clay County
It is in Clay County, where approximately 200,000 of the state’s 22.6 million inhabitants live, that the school board has chosen to remove “Men who hate women” precisely because of such complaints, the newspaper writes Expo.
This means that no students up to the twelfth grade, which corresponds to the last year of high school, will have access to the book.
Swedish PEN: “Nothing surprising”
The announcement in Florida is deeply regrettable, says Hanna Nordell, director of operations at Swedish PEN, a non-profit organization that supports threatened and imprisoned journalists.
– But it’s nothing surprising. Last year, over 4,000 books were banned from schools and libraries in the US, and this year it is over 10,000 titles, says Hanna Nordell to Expo.
She believes that the ban on “Men who hate women” is probably due to the fact that it depicts sex and sexual violence – and sees with concern that books are banned.
– In addition to decreasing access to the books, the threats against the authors whose books are banned increase, which can also lead to self-censorship when authors are forced to avoid certain topics.
Game of Thrones on the list
The possibility comes from a new state law from last year, which means that citizens can report book titles that they consider to be “inappropriate or pornographic”, writes Expo.
In addition to “Men who hate women”, several books from the series “Game of Thrones” by George R. R Martin, “Normal people” by Sally Rooney and books by Stephen King are also on the list.