?Luna, Sacred Womb Women?s Festival, Ängsbacka, 2017?
Luna is a Norwegian participant at the Sacred Womb Women?s Festival. The glasses she wears are blue light blocking, She feels they make her more balanced.
?Fire Walk I, Sacred Womb Women?s Festival, Ängsbacka, 2019?
Firewalking is the act of walking barefoot over a bed of glowing, hot embers. It?s a transformation ritual. The leader Grandmother Ana instructs around a hundred women during this ceremony and the idea is to make the women overcome fears and obstacles and embody an understanding of their strength and courage. Most of the women chose to perform the ritual naked. ?Envision this: the universe will give you what you want?, says Grandmother Ana in her pep-talk.
?Moon Mothers Brenda and Jerica, Feminine Energy/Alchemy Workshop, Stockholm, 2018?
Brenda and Jerica are Moon Mothers. A Moon Mother is a woman who feels the calling to carry the vibration of the feminine divine, so that she can personally pass it on to other women so that they can be awakened and healed. They bless women in rituals and teach them about their menstrual cycle.
?Jacqui?s womb tattoo, Stockholm, 2017?
Within the movement the female body is considered as sacred. Especially the womb is highlighted as a sacred vessel, a void with connection to the past and the future, life and death.
?Hannah-Maria, Feminine Awakening, Sacred Womb Women?s Festival, Ängsbacka, 2019?
Hannah-Maria is a participant at the Sacred Womb Women?s Festival. She came to the festival because she felt asexual, disconnected to her body and sexuality. She even lost her menstrual cycle and felt the need to be nurtured in a safe feminine space with other women. During some spare time another participant, Dagomara, offers her a spontaneous healing session to help her connect with her sensuality and femininity. ?Before the healing you looked like a girl. Now you look like a woman.?, said Dagomara afterwards.
?Joana and Bella, Sacred Womb Women?s Festival, Ängsbacka, 2017?
Sacred Womb’s Women?s Festival in Ängsbacka was the first big festival for the feminine awakening movement in the Nordics. It carried on for four days and offered different kinds of spiritual workshops for women, led by women. The two best friends Joana and Bella, participants at the festival, became so inspired by this festival that they started to arrange women’s circles and festivals of their own when they returned to Stockholm.
?Joana, Bella and Susannah, Sacred Womb Women?s Festival, Ängsbacka, 2017?
The fire burns at the evenings on the Sacred Womb Women?s Festival. Women gather to sing, drum and bless women all over the world and pray for their liberation. Sacred drumming is a worldwide ancient and modern crosscultural phenomenon. Within the movement it is believed that women once had an important role in society as priestesses and that the sacred drum was a part of their spiritual practice. The women believe these cultural practices was forbidden and hidden. Therefor the drum is an important spiritual tool for sacred rituals, and it?s considered to be especially connected to women.
?Emmy I, Moon Circle, Umeå, 2019?
Emmy is a participant at a Moon Circle organized to celebrate the return of Spring.
“Reagan, Shera and Stormy backstage, The Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, 2004”
From the series Suicide Girls (2004)
This image is a part of the exhibition Queejna/Queen by Elin Berge.
Suicide Girls.
Hijabistas. Imane Aldebe, 32 years, born in Sweden, living in Stockholm. Designer that makes turbans and owns the brands Happy Turbans and Iman Aldebe Haute. She also created a veil for the Swedish police. She wants to modernize the islamic image of women through fashion.
“Fashion can be political and start debates. When it comes to intergration I believe fashion is a more effective way for change than any political labour-market act. I started to modernize the veil when I realized how hard it is to get a job as a Muslim woman in veil.
?When the picture was taken I was going to take part in a fashion show for Muslim women. It was fun and exciting. Everyone could choose the clothes they thought were the nicest and most themselves. I only wear veil when I?m going to the mosque, and I couldn?t imagine to wear it more in my age. There are too many prejudices. I think you can be a good Muslim without the veil. It?s the inside that counts.?..Erna 14 years old, Stockholm. Photographer: Elin Berge / MOMENT
ÓI started wearing the veil when I was 18 years old. I used to think that I never would put it on. Not in this society, then youÕd want to be like anyone else. One day I followed a friend to a lecture about the prophet. I wasnÕt usually going on things like that, since I didnÕt practice my religion. There I saw the Swedish girls, and started talking to them. I had never seen Swedish Muslims before. Then I felt, I donÕt practice my religion even though IÕm born a Muslim, but they doÉ I was to affected by society, was too afraid that people would stare. I want home immediately and put on the veil.Ó
Inas 20 years old
Hijabistas. Faduma Aden, 27 years, born in Somalia, living in Stockholm. Fashion designer and founder of the brand Jemmila, that merges Scandinavian and Muslim fashion to the modest business woman.
“Fashion is a way to express your individual style, to feel fellowship with others and to reflect our time. When I design I have many different sources of inspiration. My main mission is to create classic and workable garnments for women that wants to be modest.”
Hijabistas. Friends and fashion enthusiasts Shama Vafaipour, Imane Asry and Maryam Dinar.
Klara och Malin. Piteå, juli 2012…Klara och Malin. Piteå, Sweden, July 2012…
Bare Breasts/Merely Breasts. In 2007 a group of Swedish women established a network called Bara Bröst (translation both bare breasts/merely breasts). They made some protest actions that caused a lot of attention. Bathing topless in public swimmin pools, they wanted to start a debate about the unwritten social and cultural rules that sexualizes and discriminates the female body. They claim the right to be bare breasted at any public place where it is socially accepted for men to be likewise.
Frida, Pia and Liv, Malmö, May 2008.
Bare Breasts/Merely Breasts. In 2007 a group of Swedish women established a network called Bara Bröst (translation both bare breasts/merely breasts). They made some protest actions that caused a lot of attention. Bathing topless in public swimmin pools, they wanted to start a debate about the unwritten social and cultural rules that sexualizes and discriminates the female body. They claim the right to be bare breasted at any public place where it is socially accepted for men to be likewise.
Filippa and Frida, Stockholm, August 2008.
Hunting’s popularity among women seems to be growing in the western world. In Sweden there are about 18000 active female hunters and of those who take their hunting degree one in five is a woman. Sorsele municipality, in the rural north of Sweden, is a place where hunt is a natural part of life. Children accompany their parents from an early age and the municipality has the highest percentage of female hunters in the nation.
– I’ve been in nature since I was a kid. It has been a natural part of life. We pick berries. We cultivate our own crops. I want to know where the food comes from, because I grew up in a small rural village. We were breed this way.
Ida Hedman, 24 years old, together with her sister Nina, Tallbacken.
Hunting’s popularity among women seems to be growing in the western world. In Sweden there are about 18000 active female hunters and of those who take their hunting degree one in five is a woman. Sorsele municipality, in the rural north of Sweden, is a place where hunt is a natural part of life. Children accompany their parents from an early age and the municipality has the highest percentage of female hunters in the nation.
– For years I didn’t really know who I was due to a destructive relationship. I wanted to please my then boyfriend to the extent that I started to adjust to all his wishes. I even converted to Islam and lived like a Muslim for four years. I really wanted to be with him. He manipulated me away from friends and family. Eventually the only one I had was him. At the University I wrote a paper about the Sami food culture and realized that it resembled my own mindset. Then I started to think about what I’d do after my studies and realized that I never could see myself where he wanted to be, in southern Sweden. So I ditched him. Moved back home and started to take my hunters degree. I think it was my way of finding myself again.
Ida Hedman, 24 years old, Tallbacken.