Young Norwegian-Pakistani women and sport

Abstract

Studies from several countries show that girls with an immigrant background participate in organized sports to a lesser extent than other young people. Barriers related to culture and religion serve in many of these studies as explanations. In this article we suggest that the notions of culture and religion in this field of studies could be elaborated and we distinguish between three different approaches: (a) culture and religiosity as restricting factors; (b) culture and religiosity as embodied dispositions for action; and lastly (c) culture and religiosity as the basis for reflexive praxis. Analyses of qualitative interviews with young Norwegian-Pakistani women show the relevance of the three perspectives. The study’s most important contribution is to illustrate how culture and religiosity have multiple meanings. The three perspectives presented in this paper might be used as analytical tools in future research on minority women and sports.

Exploring the minority–majority gap in sport participation: different patterns for boys and girls?

“…The influence of Islam among girls was in line with the results of other studies (Pfister 2011;Walseth and Strandbu 2014). For strictly practising Muslim girls, gender segregation is a precondition for their participation in sport (Strandbu 2005).…”

“…Two qualitative interview studies on young girls with immigrant parents in Oslo suggest that bashfulness and embodied identities may affect sport participation among young girls with immigrant parents (Strandbu 2005;Walseth and Strandbu 2014).…”

“…In addition, the role of Islam should be addressed in relation to other factors. Walseth and Strandbu (2014) have underlined the need to specify the notions of culture and religions used in studies on sport participation of minorities, and they distinguish between culture and religion as (i) restricting factors, (ii) as embodied dispositions for action and (iii) as the basis for reflexive praxis. Hence, the relevance of both religion and culture could work in different ways.…”

Ethics in Categorizing Ethnicity and Disability in Research with Children

“…Relational and mindful ethics advocate that researchers consider the complex stories of the people in their studies, as these stories and lives are important to understand the relationship in the interview [33]. In both studies, the authors experienced how social categories framed the stories of the participants, how stories were "clustered around some hegemonic constructions of boundaries between 'self' and 'other' and between 'us' and 'them,'" and that these relationships were "closely related to political processes" [50] (p. 2). Researchers and participants need to continuously attempt to resolve misunderstandings that might appear during interviews [31,33].…”

“…Furthermore, there was the risk that recognizability might extend beyond the institution (e.g., that individual students would be recognized by parents or within a community). For example, the Pakistani community in Norway is portrayed as an interconnected social network [50].…”