Torn Apart: Structural Racism and the Targeting of Muslim Mothers by Child Welfare

The problems resulting from mechanisms of institutional racism within Swedish social services have harmed many families of migrant background and created serious problems with the integration of those families into Swedish society. This project investigates the experiences of Muslim mothers in Sweden who were accused of Shaken Baby Syndrome and later acquitted. All the women were separated from their children for extended periods and held in pre-trial detention. Employing a qualitative, feminist-informed methodology, this project explores how an intersection of structural discrimination, flawed medical assumptions, and institutional racism served to shape their experiences. It reveals how racialised and gendered identities rendered these mothers inherently suspect, positioning them as unfit caregivers within a child welfare system that privileges (contested) biomedical narratives over contextual understanding. The project highlights the epistemic and emotional consequences of relying on scientifically disputed diagnostic criteria in child protection, and how such reliance perpetuates systemic injustice. The findings underscore the need for critical reform in both social work and legal frameworks, to address systemic injustice and prevent the unwarranted separation of families.