From the Foulard Affair to the Burkini Ban: State Control of Muslim Women's Bodies in France—Nadeen Thomas (Women's History Colloquium)

Since 1989, the French government has enacted increasingly strict policies regarding Muslim women's dress. Initially, schools and other state institutions were the sites of these skirmishes. More recently, laws against the burka and the (failed) burkini ban have extended state control to leisure spaces and the general public arena under the guise of both women's liberation and fear of terrorism. In this lecture, Thomas will discuss the history of anti-veiling policies in France and the contradictions inherent in the state's colonial feminist stance with respect to Muslim women.

Nadeen Thomas is an Anthropologist who teaches at Sarah Lawrence College in the Graduate Program in Women's History and Iona College in Women's Studies. Her research interests include immigration, race, ethnicity, education systems, and nationalism in the United States and Europe.