Myrthe Hilkens (born 31 January 1979 in

Geleen Geleen (; li, Gelaen ) is a city in the southern part of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg in the Netherlands. With 31,670 inhabitants in 2020, it is part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen. Geleen is situated along the river Gele ...

) is a Dutch

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, non-fiction writer, and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. As a member of the Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid), she was a temporary member of the

House of Representatives of the Netherlands The House of Representatives (, pronounced ; commonly referred to as the ', literally "Second Chamber of the States General") is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate. ...

from April till August 2011, replacing

Nebahat Albayrak Nebahat Albayrak (born 10 April 1968) is a retired Turkish–Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and jurist. She is a corporate director at Upstream International a division of Royal Dutch Shell since 5 November 2012. Biography Alb ...

, who was on

maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and ...

. As an MP, she dealt with matters of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. On 17 January 2012, she became an MP once again, but she left parliament on 29 August 2013. Hilkens grew up in Geleen, and later in

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

. She was partially raised as a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, but renounced religion. She studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

Fontys Academy of Journalism The Fontys Academy of Journalism (Dutch: ''Fontys Hogeschool voor Journalistiek'', short ''FHJ'') is one of the four journalism schools in the Netherlands. It is based in Tilburg, North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ...

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

, and works as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

journalist and non-fiction writer. In 2003, she lived for half a year in an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

. Hilkens opposes the influence of

pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

on society, and wrote a book about the subject called ''McSex, de pornoficatie van de samenleving'' (2008).

References

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Parlement.com biography
*
'Yo, ouders, denk eens na!'
''

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

'', 22 November 2008

External links

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House of Representatives biography
1979 births Living people Anti-pornography activists Dutch activists Dutch former Christians Dutch women activists Dutch expatriates in Israel Dutch journalists Dutch relationships and sexuality writers Dutch political writers 21st-century Dutch women writers 21st-century Dutch writers Former Roman Catholics Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) People from Geleen Dutch women journalists 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians {{Netherlands-PvdA-politician-stub