Oslo, July 24 (Reuters): A Norwegian woman, described by friends and neighbours as a good mother, had her two young daughters taken away by social workers because she scored low in an intelligence test.

Svanhild Jensen, 24, desperate to get her two girls back, is now hoping an improved score in another IQ test will mean she will be reunited with her daughters, aged one and three.

Jensen’s tale has provoked outrage in Norway. “She was shocked and humiliated,” Jensen’s lawyer Anette Lilleengen said. “The entire local community supports my client. They have seen what a good mother she is.”

Social workers in Jensen’s home town of Kvaenangen, northern Norway, placed the two girls in a foster home in April after they said she was unfit to be a mother, primarily because she scored just 53 on an IQ test in September.

A court upheld the decision but Jensen took another IQ test with an independent expert and scored 95 — well within the 85-115 score considered “normal” in the test used by Norwegian authorities.

Social services said they could not reconsider the case but would leave any decision to an appeals court.