• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Neither whores nor slaves

Jan 5, 2005 7:49 am By Robert Spencer

From AFP, with thanks to David Russell, who comments: “This issue of ‘ni putes ni soumises’ in France is very interesting, and is probably incomprehensible to most Americans. You can see it in the tone that this article takes, presenting it as a ‘feminist’ issue. Even in France, as you can see, many on the left do not know how to approach the issue…it is a ‘clash of two political correctnesses’: feminism and multiculturalism. Fundamentally it is about the presence of Islamic culture in France, and Islamic ‘behavior’ on the part of Muslim men here…but as you can see…it is often presented in Marxist ‘economic’ terms…the men who perpetrate these acts are poor and down and out etc…although the dreadful acts described occur only in the ‘northern Paris suburbs’ which are populated virtually exclusively by Muslims…”

A year after it launched a campaign to denounce violence against women in France’s high-immigration, high-rise city suburbs, called banlieues, the group “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” has become a nationwide force – but still finds itself held at arm’s length by the mainstream feminist movement.

The organisation – whose name means “Neither Whores Nor Slaves” – was born out of the appalling tragedy that befell a 19-year-old girl, Sohane Benziane, who was set on fire and killed by a boy she knew in a run-down apartment estate in the Paris outskirts in October 2002.

Led by 38 year-old activist Fadéla Amara, “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” conducted a much-publicised series of demonstrations around France in early 2003, culminating this year in a Women’s Day march through Paris after which a petition signed by 15,000 people was handed to President Jacques Chirac.

The movement directs its anger at the violence and stigmatisation suffered by young women of North African origin who it says are increasingly the victims of a culture of abuse justified in the name of Islamic tradition in the neglected French banlieues.

“When I was growing up it was perfectly normal for girls to wear short skirts, or tight jeans, or low tops. No man would have dared make a remark.”

“Today – and for the last ten years – femininity is seen by boys as a provocation, as something to be condemned,” Amara said in a recent book.

The group’s message is a frightening one: that social breakdown in the country’s high-immigration neighbourhoods has led to a generation of young Arab men crippled by self-loathing and alienation, who take out their frustrations in aggression against their increasingly assertive female counterparts.

The most symbolic illustration of the phenomenon is the practice of “tournantes” – the gang-rape of young women handed over by their boyfriends for group enjoyment – though of more general significance is the day-to-day abuse and humiliation encountered among the tenements, the group says.

What has exacerbated tensions has been the debate over the Islamic headscarf in schools, which will be banned from September under a highly-contentious law that has just passed through the French parliament.

“Ni Putes Ni Soumises”, which sees resurgent Islamic traditionalism as the major threat to young women, has come out unequivocally in favour of the law and believes the focus of feminist pressure should be “the defence of secularism, the Republic and the fight against fundamentalism.”…

From the start “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” put France’s feminist movement in a quandary, because it explicitly accused mainstream activists of abandoning the “banlieues” in their pursuit of elusive political goals. It also made clear it made no distinction between left and right in apportioning blame for the crisis.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Lion heart on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • Graham Bryant on Canadian Mental Health Association studies Muslim women’s mental health due to ‘discrimination’ and ‘hate crimes’
  • Sabri S. on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • Hoi Polloi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.