En diskursanalys av hur religiös klädsel och praktik i skolan framställs i media med fokus på slöjförbudet i Skurups kommun

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate how religious clothing and religious practice is described in newspapers and articles. Main focus was on a specific incident - that wearing a veil in schools in the community of Skurup was prohibited after a decision in the Community board in the end of 2019. The method used in the study is critical discourse analysis and I was analysing articles from newspapers to see patterns in the descriptions. Theories used was postcolonialism and orientalism, intersectional perspective and stereotypes. In my analysis I found that two specific discourses was most apparent. One of the discourses was about prohibition and conversion, that contains a discussion around the veil and the fact that it is said in the articles that it needs to be banned because it can led to students converting to islam. The other discourse is about freedom and identity. That discourse is about the right to wear religious clothes and to practice the religion. The result of my study shows that the veil is a powerful symbol that is more than a piece of garment. The veil itself stands for a lot of characteristics and attributes, imputed on the veil. The religious practice is not described as much in the articles as the veil. The veil and muslim women are described as stereotypes and as “the others”. The veil is in the articles described as non democratic although this study shows that it is more about power and the postcolonial view on “the others” in the east.