Sekularitet - förstahet genom religion och kön

Abstract

Secularities – firstness through religion and gender In this article we explore how positing religion as other simultaneously makes secularism a firstness. How is secularism embodied and reproduced as an objective and neutral space – a firstness. The secular subject is often represented as free and rational in contrast to an imagined religious, traditional, and often Muslim other. By studying Swedish contemporary debates about freedom of speech, veils, gender equality, and the in/tolerant society, we aim to unpack how secularism is done in a Swedish neoliberal contemporary context. Inspired by anthropologist of secularism, Talal Asad, we wish to contribute to the undermining of the tightly knit weave of secularism, reason and critique in Western discourse.