Neutralitet och muslimska kvinnors slöja

Aktivt medborgarskap, arbete och exkludering i det samtida Sverige

Abstract

This article takes the ruling of the European Court of Justice concerning the so-called neutral clothing policy, within private companies, as a starting point. The ruling facilitates prohibition of visible religious, philosophical and political signs. The resulting neutrality policies are studied from the point of view of their consequences, both concrete and emotional ones, as well as how they are perceived and experienced among Muslim women in Sweden. One of the concrete consequences appeared in an employment process at Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which is discussed together with subsequent media representation that questioned practices of active citizenship among Muslim women in Sweden. Furthermore, I study how the resistance against the ruling was articulated in different arenas in Sweden. These issues are analyzed in the light of a normative secularity and how such an understanding impacts on exclusion of Muslim women in Sweden and hinders their possibility of belonging and partaking in social matters on equal terms.