"Claiming My Space" : A Qualitative Exploration of Muslim Women Navigating Feminist Beliefs and Intersecting Identities in Sweden

Sammanfattning: In Sweden, Muslims have increasingly become accused of being a threat to liberal, gender equal values and Muslim women constructed as victims and often excluded from Feminist discourses. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how Feminist Muslim women construct and navigate their Feminist beliefs in Sweden. Qualitative data was collected through opend-structured interviews with five foreign-born women, residing in Sweden. The thematic analysis showed that overall, the interviewees were navigating the complexities of intersecting identities - as Muslim, women, migrants and living in Swedish society. Main contributions included how intersectionality helped to communicate their beliefs and expereinces against percieved stereotypes of Muslim women and how experiences of othering reinforced how they understood obstacles they faced in their everyday lives. Postcolonial Feminist theory and the concept of "othering" were applied to help explain the findings.