The interplay and clash of religious norms and Swedish divorce laws
(2015) RÄSM12 20151Department of Sociology of Law
- Abstract
- This thesis aims to explore the interplay and clash of religious norms and Swedish divorce laws and the role of migration in shaping these processes. The case of Sweden deserves particular attention in this respect, as it has been more open than other EU countries in terms of accepting refugees and asylum seekers over the last two decades. This policy certainly has implications for cultural diversity in Sweden, since each newly arrived immigrant brings his or her interpretations and perceptions of ‘law‘ to their receiving society. These tendencies can be more discerned in cases of divorce, since immigrant communities try to follow their own traditions and religious norms in regulating family relations.
I will use the qualitative case... (More) - This thesis aims to explore the interplay and clash of religious norms and Swedish divorce laws and the role of migration in shaping these processes. The case of Sweden deserves particular attention in this respect, as it has been more open than other EU countries in terms of accepting refugees and asylum seekers over the last two decades. This policy certainly has implications for cultural diversity in Sweden, since each newly arrived immigrant brings his or her interpretations and perceptions of ‘law‘ to their receiving society. These tendencies can be more discerned in cases of divorce, since immigrant communities try to follow their own traditions and religious norms in regulating family relations.
I will use the qualitative case study of the experiences of immigrant communities in Stockholm, Sweden. Accordingly, by qualitatively studying how immigrants comply with, avoid or maneuver around the formal Swedish divorce laws and the alternative (to the formal law) strategies and techniques that they utilize, this thesis will explore the mutually transforming interactions between plural legal cultures in Stockholm and how they are experienced in immigrant communities' everyday life and family relations.
The theoretical framework of legal pluralism and gendered geographical of power will be applied to be able to analyze the data from the interviews. Legal pluralism provides the tools to understand which different bodies of law and norms are involved in a divorce process in immigration communities, and gendered geographical of power provides the tools to understand and explain gender and power relations in immigration communities in cases of divorce.
The data from the interviews illustrate that religious communities have their own set of rules/norms regarding divorce and they operate as a competing source of legal authority regarding divorce cases. The data from the interviews also illustrate that religious communities are based on patriarchal traditions and that they are guardians of patriarchal society. Their patriarchal norms are they source of inequality, and the female gender is convinced from an early age that she is subordinate to the male gender as illustrated from the data in the interviews, both the male and female gender act according to the philosophy of a patriarchal tradition in religious communities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/7863272
- author
- Kamareh, Iman LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- RÄSM12 20151
- year
- 2015
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Political science, Social science, Sociology of Law, Law
- language
- English
- id
- 7863272
- date added to LUP
- 2015-09-11 12:28:07
- date last changed
- 2015-09-11 12:28:07
@misc{7863272,
abstract = {{This thesis aims to explore the interplay and clash of religious norms and Swedish divorce laws and the role of migration in shaping these processes. The case of Sweden deserves particular attention in this respect, as it has been more open than other EU countries in terms of accepting refugees and asylum seekers over the last two decades. This policy certainly has implications for cultural diversity in Sweden, since each newly arrived immigrant brings his or her interpretations and perceptions of ‘law‘ to their receiving society. These tendencies can be more discerned in cases of divorce, since immigrant communities try to follow their own traditions and religious norms in regulating family relations.
I will use the qualitative case study of the experiences of immigrant communities in Stockholm, Sweden. Accordingly, by qualitatively studying how immigrants comply with, avoid or maneuver around the formal Swedish divorce laws and the alternative (to the formal law) strategies and techniques that they utilize, this thesis will explore the mutually transforming interactions between plural legal cultures in Stockholm and how they are experienced in immigrant communities' everyday life and family relations.
The theoretical framework of legal pluralism and gendered geographical of power will be applied to be able to analyze the data from the interviews. Legal pluralism provides the tools to understand which different bodies of law and norms are involved in a divorce process in immigration communities, and gendered geographical of power provides the tools to understand and explain gender and power relations in immigration communities in cases of divorce.
The data from the interviews illustrate that religious communities have their own set of rules/norms regarding divorce and they operate as a competing source of legal authority regarding divorce cases. The data from the interviews also illustrate that religious communities are based on patriarchal traditions and that they are guardians of patriarchal society. Their patriarchal norms are they source of inequality, and the female gender is convinced from an early age that she is subordinate to the male gender as illustrated from the data in the interviews, both the male and female gender act according to the philosophy of a patriarchal tradition in religious communities.}},
author = {{Kamareh, Iman}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The interplay and clash of religious norms and Swedish divorce laws}},
year = {{2015}},
}