Words by

Ish Sveinsson Houle

Photo by

Kjartan Hreinsson

Women of foreign origin share their stories through a new book

Released in mid-February, Her Voice: Stories of Women of Foreign Origin in Iceland (i. Hennar Rödd: Sögur kvenna af erlendum uppruna á Íslandi) features stories of 33 different women of foreign origin in Iceland, and is the culmination of a five-year project from the eponymous organisation Her Voice.  

“I guess it started even earlier than that, because the project is really inspired by a book that my mum had started working on nearly 15 years ago” Chanel Björk Sturludóttir tells me. Her mother is Jamaican, raised in England, and moved to Iceland after meeting Chanel’s Icelandic father. “Due to her own experiences of discrimination and prejudice and so on, she thought that it would be really important that the experiences of women of foreign origin in Iceland got more attention in Icelandic society.” When her mother originally embarked on this project, however, she experienced hardship finding funding and a publishing house.  

“At the time, it seemed as though Iceland wasn’t quite ready for this conversation” Chanel says.   

Now, the project has come to fruition. Chanel and co-editors Elinóra Guðmundsdóttir and Elínborg Kolbeinsdóttir published the book with Vía útgáfa, a publishing house committed to sharing diverse stories. The book is substantial, with a serious black cover and gold embossing. It has the heft of a telephone book.  

“We wanted it to be a big book. I don’t know how to put that a bit more eloquently,” Chanel laughs. “We wanted it to have a lot of weight to it.”  

By foreign women, for everyone 

The book gathered its 33 different stories through an open nomination process, with Chanel admitting the team was overwhelmed by the number of women nominated.  

“That goes to show and prove what we thought,” she says, “women of foreign origin in Iceland have touched so many lives, have made really valuable contributions to society.” The book’s size isn’t only a result of the large amount of stories it holds, but from the fact that it is bilingual — on every page, one half is in English and the other is in Icelandic, as translated by Ásdís Sól Ágústsdóttir.   

“We just realized that it didn’t really make any sense to only publish in one language,” Chanel explains, “because the women in the book, they don’t speak just one language.”  

Asked who the book’s intended audience is, Chanel states that, first and foremost, this is a book for women of foreign origin in Iceland. Following that, she identifies a second group: “we also really hope that, maybe, people who aren’t as embedded in diverse communities in Iceland, that they pick up this book.” 

Though already released, Her Voice: Stories of Women of Foreign Origin in Iceland will have a formal launch on International Women’s Day (March 8) with a ceremony and celebration at Harpa.  

“I think in the past years, there has been a shift towards slightly more intersectional thinking when it comes to gender equality in Iceland, but it’s still definitely not as bedded in feminist thoughts as it should be” she says of including foreign voices in the conversation. “So I hope that the book launch will add something to that conversation.” 

Join Her Voice and Vía at Harpa at 12:30 on March 8 to celebrate the book’s launch. Her Voice: Stories of Women of Foreign Origin in Iceland is for sale in major bookstores in Iceland, and on Vía’s online market Uppskera, and will be for sale discounted at the event!