Billaud, Julie and Castro, Julie (2013) Whores and Niqabées: The sexual boundaries of French nationalism. French Politics, Culture; Society, 31 (2). ISSN 1537-6370

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Abstract

This essay seeks to analyze the recent reconfigurations of French nationalism, taking as an entry point the legal treatment of veiled Muslim women and prostitutes over the past two decades. We argue that the bodies of prostitutes and veiled Muslim women, both of which have been targeted by successive legal interventions in order to exclude them from the public space, have become central political sites for the state to assert its sovereign power and trigger nationalist feelings. This comparative analysis of gendered “lawfare“ (which John Comaroff has defined as the judicialization of politics and the resort to legal instruments to commit acts of political coercion) provides insights into a new form of nationalism that strives to foster “sexual liberalism“ as a core value of citizenship in order to enforce a virile nationalism, prescribe new sexual normativities, and criminalize immigrants and those living at the social margins.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Global Studies > Anthropology
Research Centres and Groups:	Sussex Rights and Justice Research Centre
Depositing User:	Julie Billaud
Date Deposited:	16 Jul 2018 09:27
Last Modified:	16 Jul 2018 09:27
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/77162

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