The Role of "Islamic feminism" in Somali Immigrant Women's Intra-and Extra-Household Bargaining Power and in Mitigating the Negative Effects of the Image Problem in their Integration in Norway
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research explores the aspirations and life experiences of Somali immigrant women in Bergen as they embark on gender-tuned interpretation of the Quran as a source of bargaining power within the household and in the wider Norwegian immigration context. By bargaining power I mean an individual's interests or preferences and the ability to act on those interests or preferences. I show that, faced by constraints such as restrictive structures within the Norwegian immigration context and patriarchal norms of conduct, some Somali women have created a vision, an ideal and a practice of ordering life according to the Quran that they call Islamic feminism". This ideal, Somali Islamic feminism", has clear associations with the political movement of Islamic Feminism, but it is also clearly unique and distinct, due to its origins among Somali immigrant women themselves. I argue that by means of Somali Islamic feminism", these brave women are using the Quran to challenge patriarchy. By so doing, they are gaining bargaining power within and outside their households and are creating grassroot change, as well as a ray of hope for the next generation of Somali women. The voices of Somali men are also included in showing how migration creates new forms of belonging and redefines new patterns of gender power relations. The research concludes that Somali Islamic feminism" has a catalyzing effect" on the degree of intra-and-extra household bargaining power although the magnitude diminishes at extra household levels.
Author: Anne Wangui Ngunjiri
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2271442173