Iceland consistently ranks among the most gender equal countries in the world, holding first place on the Global Gender Gap Index for 15 years.
The terms of parental leave for mothers and fathers are so good that almost 90 percent of working-age women are employed, while almost half of the country's parliamentarians are women.
BBC 100 Women explores what this country is doing right - and whether things are as good for women as they seem.
On a freezing winter morning in Reykjavík, dozens of little girls throw heavy logs to the ground with amazing dedication.
"I. Alone. Strong!" they shout at the top of their voices.
They attend one of 17 kindergartens in Iceland that practices the Hjali method - a way of developing children's personality that completely rejects conventional gender stereotypes.
"Two-year-old children already form an idea of what it means to be a boy or a girl," says the founder of the method, Margret Pála Olafsdottir.
"It will limit them for the rest of their lives."
In Hjali schools, boys and girls are separated for most of the day and encouraged to do things traditionally associated with the opposite sex.
Girls are taught to be uncompromising and violent: in addition to throwing logs, they sometimes walk barefoot in the snow.
The boys brush each other's hair, massage each other and give each other compliments.
"Boys are usually more individualistic and independent. We teach them to be considerate, to be caring, to help each other and to listen to each other," says Olafsdottir.
The Hjali method is increasingly popular in Iceland, a country that is already considered a leader in gender equality.
It is the only country in the world that has closed 90 percent of the gender gap – differences in health, education and economic opportunities based on gender, as measured by the World Economic Forum.
In 2018, Iceland became the first country in the world to require employers to prove they are paying men and women the same for the same amount of work, or risk hefty fines.
Almost 90 percent of working-age women are employed, which is significantly higher than the employment rate in the EU, where in 2021 there were less than 68 percent of women on the labor market, according to the European Commission.
According to the records of the World Bank, the rate of participation in the global workforce for women is slightly over 50 percent, compared to 80 percent for men.
Many point to Iceland's childcare policy as one of the reasons for this.
Each parent gets six months of leave at 80 percent pay – and an additional six weeks that they can exchange between themselves.
"I've never felt pressured not to have children because of my career," says Katrin Torhalsdottir, who works as an aqua technician at a salmon farming company and has five children under 10.
She shares parental leave equally with her husband Fanar.
'This is not a feminist paradise'
But one group of women is so furious with the Icelandic government that they are suing the country at the European Court of Human Rights.
The prosecutors have one thing in common: they all went to the police to report rape or molestation, and their cases were dismissed before they reached court.
They claim that the justice system in the country fails women in a systemic way.
Statistics show that a quarter of Icelandic women have experienced rape or attempted rape, and about 40 percent of them have been exposed to physical or sexual violence, in contrast to the world average of 30 percent, according to the World Health Organization.
But too few men end up in court, the women say, because Icelandic police do not properly investigate allegations of rape and molestation - in part because of a lack of government funding.
"In many cases, key witnesses are not heard, reports from doctors and psychologists are ignored... even the rapist's confession is not taken seriously," says Gudrun Jönsdottir, from Stigamot, one of the NGOs that helped file the lawsuit.
"It is completely unacceptable that women's allegations are not taken seriously. We will not tolerate it."
Government statistics show that in 80 percent of cases when women reported sexual violence, nothing came of it.
"They call us a feminist paradise, but we're not," says Hulda Hrund, founder of Ofgar, a feminist organization that provides support to victims of gender-based violence.
"It's just a PR trick, it's political sloganeering."
Marija, one of the women who is suing the government, says that she provided the police with witnesses and evidence - among them photos of the injuries inflicted on her by the aggressor and texts he sent her in which he admitted to abusing her.
The Director of Public Prosecutions says there was enough evidence to prosecute, but the police took so long to investigate it that the case is out of date.
"I was not allowed to leave the house for three years," says Marija.
"I never go out alone at night. This is a small country and I always look over my shoulder."
Iceland's national police commissioner apologized for the police's failings in this case.
The women who filed the lawsuit criticize the courts as much as the police.
There was widespread outrage in 2019 when a man accused of rape was acquitted because a judge ruled it was impossible for him to remove a woman's tight, high-waisted leather pants.
The same judge ruled in another case that a woman who nearly bled to death from injuries in her vagina had engaged in "rough sex."
Hulda Hrund claims that this is why some men think they can get away with sexual violence.
"Men know that they are unlikely to be held accountable for their actions," she says.
"Even if you are found guilty of rape, your sentence is at the judge's discretion - and you may never even set foot in prison."
"It's a dark shadow hanging over our society," says Gudrun Jonsdottir.
'It's not enough'
Iceland's government told the BBC it supports the goal of ending gender-based violence.
"Iceland has long been a leader in gender equality, but more can always be done to make progress," says the spokesperson.
But Iceland's president, Hala Tomasdottir, says the government is not doing enough.
"I don't think any government is doing enough. We have challenges in the justice system and in the wider society," she says.
"As long as there is gender-based violence, we are not doing enough. It's that simple."
She still believes that Iceland is one of the best places for women and hopes that the country will completely close the gender gap by 2030.
The UN told the BBC that the country is well on its way to succeeding in this.
Despite her role in supporting women who have faced gender-based violence, Hulda Hrund is optimistic.
She says she feels a change is coming in Icelandic society.
"My daughter had sex education from the first grade. They know what boundaries are and they know what voluntary consent is. All the things I wish I had known when I was their age."
And it is possible that for the generation of boys and girls who go through the Hjali method, the idea of gender-based violence will be even less acceptable than it is today.
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