Iceland Review
Shima Safari, 27 Living in Iceland since early 2018 From Shiraz, Iran “I have a master’s degree in architecture. Before I came to Iceland I thought I would continue into the next stage of my career but when I arrived here everything was different. They expected me to have had several years of experience but in fact, I had just finished my education and I had to start somewhere. I became a housekeeper in one of the great Reykjavik hotels. At first I was very happy that I had a job but on the other hand, I was also upset – why am I a housekeeper with all this education? I have been working for six months and during this time I have not felt even the slightest racism from Icelanders. Communicating with them gives me energy. In fact, I do not really feel different. Now, I’m so interested in my work environment and my career that I would like to run my own hotel in the future. I love Iceland. I always speak of it with pride to my friends and really, in this way I feel like I am Icelandic. At the moment, I am trying to strengthen my English since the hotel is an international one, but even with all its difficulty, the Icelandic language sounds very sweet to me.”
But while Icelandic women are vocal about expanding their rights, Nichole says many women of foreign origin don’t feel these rights apply to them. “They see young Icelandic women walk around with their nipples out and know that if they ever did that they would get beaten by their husbands,” she says, referencing the #freethenipple movement that shook Iceland in 2014. “And they don’t know who’s going to protect them.” She quotes one of the anonymous #metoo stories: “‘[My neighbour] could talk English to me if she needed something from me but could not talk to me when she saw my bruised face.’ For women to be willing to open themselves up and look for help, they need to know that there’s someone there.”
Even after spending years in higher education, she adds, many immigrants don’t have their degrees recognised and have to take low paying jobs outside their fields. This fact could further complicate the discussion of the wage gap but is rarely brought up and poorly documented. “In the workplace, when women feel like their education isn’t valued, their power is taken from them,” Nichole says. Space to be part of the solution As Nichole sees it, the #metoo movement helped women of foreign origin gain back some of their power, by exposing the barriers that make up their
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