Investigating Norwegian women with Muslim background position in public debate about hijab

Abstract

There is still an ongoing discussion in Europe about multiculturalism, feminism and the intersection of these two. In this thesis, the aim was to take a closer look at the nuances and position that Norwegian women with Muslim background present in the public sphere debate in Norway regarding the theme of hijab. The theoretical framework of this thesis is based on multiculturalism, postcolonialism and feminism, where an intersection of multiculturalism and feminism is also discussed. The methodology is based on feminist qualitative research, with the aim to highlight the positions and nuances that exist amongst Norwegian women with Muslim background regarding the theme of hijab. By choosing five women that made their contribution to the debate pages in Drammens Tidende in the year 2018-2019, I was able to do in-depth analysis of their positions. Previously, there were very few Norwegian women with Muslim background that took part in the public sphere debate and there were few nuances and positions highlighted, where this thesis aims to show the different positions and nuances that might exist in this community.