Resisting from within : Analysis of intersectional narratives in the "burkini" case in France

Abstract: Since summer 2016 France has experienced several episodes of “moral panic” about a three-pieces swimsuit worn by Muslim women, the “burkini”, whether on the occasion of attempts to ban it from beaches, or on the opposite to allow it in the swimming pools. These Islamophobic expressions are part of a French history of shaping the figure of “Muslim women”, controlling their bodies through their clothing, from “veil” to “burkini”, and silencing them. The present qualitative case study is grounded on the critical discourse analysis of external communication (website and social media) of 2 organizations that give voice to people identifying as both women and Muslims, adopting an intersectional approach. I was interested in the expression of their lived experiences on behalf of the group of “Muslim women”. I tried to answer the following research question: how these organizations that address intersectionality resist both the racial assignment of Muslim women, and the dominant discourse on the “burkini”? The analysis allowed me to explore two contributions of these organizations: the way in which they express resistance to the “white gaze”, which assigns them racially and gender-wise, and the way in which they express an alternative truth to this assignment, revealing who they are independently of this “white gaze”.