“Culture”, “religion”, and the Norwegian debate about Muslim women

The intention of the presentation is to analyse the role of the concept of “culture” and “religion” in Norwegian public debates about the integration and emancipation of women with a Muslim background. The study focuses on a selection of relevant newspaper articles and government white papers between 1975 and 2010.

During the last ten or fifteen years there has been a lot of debate about the perceived incompatibility between preserving minority cultures and stimulating gender equality. Norwegian women originating from many different Muslim countries have more and more often been defined as “Muslim” women, and various forms of gender inequality have been framed as “Muslim” problems. Various political actors have pointed at “Islam” as the main cause of women’s oppression. The difference between religious teachings and cultural traditions has often been blurred.

The imaging of Muslim women as “backward” and “oppressed” has not only contributed to the construction of the national identity as “modern” and “emancipated” but also served to legitimise stricter immigration- and integration policies. On the other hand, a number of Muslim women have felt that they themselves and their religion are stigmatised. They have publicly responded to this discourse: often not by denying the oppression of (some) Muslim women, but by making a clear distinction between a number of cultural traditions which they describe as severly harmful to women, and the “original” teachings of Islam which they present as women-friendly and liberating. This has led to a further debate about what Islam “really is”, in which the participants have each in their own way brought up essentialised notions of the “original message of Islam”, whether positive or negative.

In this presentation it will be discussed how “religion” and “culture” have been discursively blurred or separated, and to what extent this is actually a constructive way of discussing gender equality.