Mödrar och patriarkat
? En kvalitativ studie med fokus på mammor i familjer med starkt patriarkala traditioner.
HonourPowerShame/shamelessWomenMotherVirginityPatriarchate & religion.HederMaktSkam/ärelösKvinnaMammaOskuldPatriarkat & religion.
The aim of this study was to investigate how mothers in families with strong patriarchal traditionssee their role as a mother and as a woman. The study is built upon two main questions: What arethe expectations of your family and your immediate environment on you as a mother and as awoman? And what does ?honour? mean for you as a mother and as a woman? In our paper wehad as a starting point a gender perspective that was further on applied in defining our researchquestion. We are also giving an account of the phenomenological perspective that we also had asa basis of our work. We interviewed six mothers living in families with strong patriarchaltraditions. There were half-structured interviews according to an interview guide, with half openquestions. We followed the qualitative method. The results show that ?honour? is a basic normfor the mothers, that they have difficulties to even imagine living a life without honour. For all ofour informants, honour means not to have sexual relationships with several men, and to keep awoman?s virginity until she gets married. Avoiding bad rumours that may lead to shame is animportant part of the mothers? lives. As women, the mothers are forced to take into considerationtheir husbands? and older family members? opinions. It is the mothers? duty to educate theirchildren to behave in ?the right? way. According to our informants, a mother should be caringand in charge of the household work.