Sexual Violence Against Muslim Women in France’s Banlieues

In a post-Harvey Weinstein world, sexual assault and sexual harassment have become a daily conversation around the world; however, frequently missing in this conversation are the voices of minority women. In France, sexual violence against Muslim women in the low-income housing areas called banlieues has been an issue for some time, with factors such as fundamentalist Islam, the stigmatization of Muslim men, and what some have called “white feminism” contributing to the problem as well as to the difficulty of talking about it. Underlying these forces is France’s colonial past, which has shaped how and why sexual violence has become an in issue in the banlieues. The work of French Muslims such as Samira Bellil and Fadela Amara have brought attention to this issue; however, in my analysis, racial discrimination hinders progress towards a solution.