Iceland is widely heralded as a world leader in gender equality, but on Wednesday a group of women with their mouths duct-taped shut gathered outside Hólmsheiði women’s prison to rally against what they see as the unjust treatment of a domestic abuse survivor.

Nara Walker, a 28-year-old artist originally from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, put on a brave face as she entered the high-security jail for her three-month stay, joking that she didn’t think there had ever been a protest in that spot before.

Nara’s case has garnered attention from around the world for reasons that go beyond the fact she is a foreigner – and a world-renowned artist – stuck in an overseas prison.

On February 12, 2018, she was found guilty in the District Court of Reykjavik of grievous bodily harm following an incident in which she bit off a piece of her now former husband’s tongue – an act, she has always maintained, was in self-defence. The Queensland-born artist had relocated to Iceland to be with her husband.

A group of women with their mouths duct-taped shut gathered outside Hólmsheiði women’s prison in support of Nara Walker.

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“They seemed to get obsessed by the injury,” Nara’s mother, Jane Walker, told SBS News.
Nara said the bite took place after her husband grabbed her as she attempted to flee the apartment, leaving her with a sprained vertebrae, a fractured rib and internal bruising. She said it was not the first time he had abused her, detailing multiple instances of rape, drugging and assault.

Ms Walker said that less than two months before the incident, which took place on November 1, Nara had told her about the ongoing domestic abuse she was suffering.

“I said you’ve got to leave, you’ve got to go and she said: ‘I’ll be right, I’ll see by Christmas and if it’s not any better I’ll leave’,” Ms Walker said. “Then, of course, this happened in between.”

Screenshots of online messages, which were tendered in court and have been seen by SBS News, appear to show her former husband admitting to physically hitting Nara and drugging her with hallucinogenic drug LSD without her knowledge.

Medical records presented to the court, also seen by SBS News, appear to support Nara’s claims of physical abuse.

Nara was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with nine of these suspended. When Nara took her case to the Icelandic Court of Appeals in December 2018, however, this sentence was increased to 18 months in jail, with 15 suspended.

“She felt it was right to stand up to this and take it further,” Ms Walker said. “And we just naively thought it would work out in her favour.”

According to court transcripts, immediately following the assault Nara attempted to inform the police officers that her husband was abusive. Despite her statements, she was taken to the police station without medical care while her husband and another injured witness were taken to the hospital.

She was then, according to Ms Walker, returned to her husband by police.

Following the arrest, Nara had her passport confiscated and was banned from travelling. Without a working visa in Iceland, and now too afraid to return to her husband’s home, she was forced to move into a women’s shelter while her case played out in the courts.

In a statement dated 17 September 2018, seen by SBS News, a psychologist diagnoses Nara with post-traumatic stress disorder and said her symptoms had been “exacerbated by the treatment she received on the scene” following the November 1 incident.

“Isolated from support systems and not receiving proper treatment for injuries, physical or emotional,” the report read. “Seemingly, the police treated her words as less valid or important than her abuser.”

Ms Walker, who works as a school teacher in Queensland, sent a letter to the Icelandic government earlier this month, requesting her daughter be pardoned by the president. In the letter she refers to the 15 months Nara spent on a travel ban prior to her imprisonment; and the significant legal, medical and living expenses accrued over this time.

In a statement to SBS News, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that they were “providing consular assistance to an Australian woman detained in Iceland”, but declined to provide further information due to “privacy obligations”.

But Ms Walker said she was disappointed with their lack of action so far. She said she had only recently been contacted by an advisor for foreign affairs minister Marise Payne, despite reaching out to her local MP Ted O’Brien as far back as 2017.

Breaking down in tears, Nara’s high school friend Savannah Lawes told SBS News that she just wants to “bring Nara home”.

“I contacted all the other girls that were in our group from school and just said ‘we’ve got to help Nara’,” she said. “We all got together and we’ve done everything we can.”

She said she was unaware of what Nara was going through before the public attention on the case.

“There were little hints … that she was going through some stuff, but I didn’t really ask that many questions because I just thought it was her art.

“But looking back now, you just go ‘ah, you were really trying to tell a story’.”

Ms Lawes, who now lives in Melbourne, spoke to Nara on Wednesday before she entered jail and said all her friend wanted to do was fit in one last dip in the pool.

“She is such a positive girl, I have no idea how she has stayed this strong through such a battle,” she said. “I really think it is her artwork that has kept her sane.”

But Ms Walker, who spoke to Nara on Thursday night, said her daughter wasn’t allowed to bring her treasured paints in with her.

“She’s a resilient young woman, and the fact that she feels the righteousness of her stance is holding her up,” she said.

“She wants to control the narrative here … she wants it to be about when it is okay for a woman to defend herself.”