• News & Analysis
    • All News & Analysis
    • American Values & Politics
    • Sharia Governance & Values
    • US Hate Groups & Crimes
    • Overseas Extremism
    • US Islamist Activity
    • Fact Sheets & Special Reports
    • Subscribe
  • Intelligence Network
  • Films
  • Activism
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • News & Analysis
    • All News & Analysis
    • American Values & Politics
    • Sharia Governance & Values
    • US Hate Groups & Crimes
    • Overseas Extremism
    • US Islamist Activity
    • Fact Sheets & Special Reports
    • Subscribe
  • Intelligence Network
  • Films
  • Activism
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Contact Us
Search
Close
Donate
Menu
Home American Values & Politics Human Rights Activists

Muslim Women Draw From Rosa Parks to Defy Burkini Ban

by Shireen Qudosi
June 27, 2019
Reading Time: 5min read
Women in Grenoble, France defy the burkini ban at a city pool (Photo: Citizen Alliance of Grenoble/Facebook)
Women in Grenoble, France defy the burkini ban at a city pool (Photo: Citizen Alliance of Grenoble/Facebook)

Fresh on the heels of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez leaning on the intersectionality of concentration camps and migrant detention centers, French women are drawing on their own parallels between iconic civil rights leader Rosa Parks and their own defiance against France’s burkini ban.

The women, part of a campaign which was launched in the French city of Grenoble by a group called the Citizen Alliance, aims to defy the ban on wearing burkinis which are forbidden at many pools and beaches in France. They say they’ve been inspired by Rosa Parks who, in 1955, became famous for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus for white passengers when order by the bus driver to do so. (The driver had her arrested for violating the Jim Crow segregation laws, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott by 17,000 black citizens.)

Désobéissance civique des musulmanes grenobloises pour des piscines publiques qui respectent la liberté de conscience. @_Pourquoi @EricPiolle #burkini #islamoféminisme pic.twitter.com/nyAvjsryKK

— AllianceCitoyenne (@alliancecitoyen) June 23, 2019

[Civic disobedience of Muslim women in Grenoble for public swimming pools to respect freedom of conscience.]

As part of France’s ongoing struggle with creating space for people of faith, the burkini came to spotlight in 2016 when a set of photos went viral capturing side-by-side glimpses of a burkini-clad Muslim woman surrounded by officers who forced her to remove the garment.

The burkini is a swimsuit adaptation named after the most monstrous of Islamist garment, the burqa, a head-to toe covering. Notably, in 2019, Muslim model Halima Aden posed in a burkini in the pages of Sports Illustrated. Interestingly, these issues keep securing privileged space in public attention.

In part, that’s done through something called intersectionality, which is exactly what we see here in the headlines of Muslim women comparing their resistance to Rosa Parks.

 

What is Intersectionality? 

According to one source in interfaith circles who has requested anonymity, intersectionality can be narrowed to the understanding that,

“It’s how people connect issues that are unrelated to one another in an effort to force everyone to adopt a down-the-line unified Leftist stance on absolutely everything. And by bolting Islamist ideas into all this other stuff  apologists like [Linda] Sarsour gain new allies.”

It’s an old strategy that keeps taking on a new form. While intersectionality is used by Islamists, not all those appealing to intersectionality are Islamists. It’s also a strategy applied in good faith by those who feel the they’re standing up to all oppression by advocating for different causes with groups ideologically aligned, at least along party lines in the form of identity politics.

Another iconic moment in recent American history where we saw Islamists playing the intersectionality card was during the Standing Rock protests of 2016. The Dakota Access Pipeline protest was led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe over the threat to tribe’s water supply. It was joined in by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and pro-Palestinian propagandists.

In the flat landscape — marked by tepees, vehicles, protesters and the flags of indigenous nations — flew another flag: that of Palestine.

The Palestinian flag flew at Oceti Sakowin with hundreds of others from indigenous nations in support of the Standing Rock Sioux’s fight against #NoDAPL. Today, let’s also stand with them. #FreePalestine #StandingRock #NoMoreGenocide pic.twitter.com/lL9yJTuzgU

— Araquel Bloss 🌱 (@AraquelBloss) May 14, 2018

There was also an official campaign launched to piggy back off the national success and sympathy of Standing Rock: From Palestine to Pipelines. It was, quite simply, parasitic.

Real solidarity through intersectional alliances means putting aside yourself for just enough time to truly honor the space for belonging and support someone whose needs you may identify with. In other words, it’s not about you; it’s about them.

Instead, Islamists (along with those comfortable with Islamism) are leeching onto iconic intersectionality markers as a means to shove their issue under the gate, gain sympathy and inflate their value.

This is exactly how I read a headline that draws on a lofty association with Rosa Parks, a woman who suffered actual racism and mistreatment through systematic abuse, not someone stomping their feet because they aren’t allowed to wear what they want to a swimming pool while still being able to do just about everything else they want in society.

This brings us to the burkini and the question of religious rights.

Is wearing the Burkini a Religious Right? 

To be crystal clear, a woman can wear whatever she wants. If a woman wants to dress modestly by wearing a burkini or any adaptation of one, she should have the right to. In the case of the burkini, the issue becomes a little more blurred when Muslim women call a specific garment a religious right, as was the case when the first burkini debates surfaced in 2016.

As I discussed earlier, there is no official uniform in Islam and the ongoing global squabbles over whether a hijab, niqab, burqa or burkini is a religious right is off-center. Islam carries no inherent religious demands in this area.

How we discuss the issues can and will be varied from thereon, but we must premise our discussion with teasing away what is religiously ordained versus what is worn based on perceived need or desire. These are two different things.

My Advice? If French law has a burkini ban, then find another mode of clothing that skirts around the official law. If you don’t like the law, work to change the law and public perception by integrating with the community as French citizens first and foremost. If you’re still not happy, find a different country to live in.

 

RELATED STORIES

Sports Illustrated: Halima Aden Poses in Burkini

The Burkini Battle: What Really Happened in Corsica

Ban the Burqa, Allow the Burkini

 

Tags: Anti-Muslim BigotryFranceInterviewOpinionUS
ShareTweetSendSend

Related Posts

Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, head of the Council of Islamic Ideology, was also in the spotlight in 2016 when a religious body ruled that men should be allowed to 'lightly beat' their wives in the context of a draft of a women's protection bill. (Photo: FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP via Getty Images)
Islamist Regimes

Pakistan: Top Cleric Says Israel Belongs to Jews

December 29, 2020
Students and relatives leave a graduation ceremony at Rutger's University. Did they learn anything about the China threat? (Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)
Human Rights Activists

State Department: American Kids Need to be Educated on China Threat

December 1, 2020
Members of an Israeli tech delegation meet with their UAE counterparts at a hotel in Dubai in October 2020.(Photo: KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)
Sharia Governance & Values

UAE: Sweeping Developments Spotlight Muslim Reform

November 22, 2020
Pope Francis with Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb in the UAE in February 2019 (Photo: Francois Nel/Getty Images)
Sharia Governance & Values

Pope’s New Vision of Fraternity Inspired by Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb

October 11, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Nin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the State Department in April 2019 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Islamist and Jihadi

Qataris Seal Agreements with US Military, NASA & Other Top Institutions

October 7, 2020
Members and supporters of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, hold a rally on April 21, 2018 in Newnan, Georgia. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Neo-Nazi/White Supremacy

Alabama Lawmaker Celebrates Klan Leader

August 6, 2020

Most Read

From Street Thugs to the High-Brow Salon Circles, the Right to Free Speech Is Increasingly Under Attack

3 months ago

Dark Days for America? Big Tech Wields Cudgel on Conservative Voices

1 week ago

Pakistan: Top Cleric Says Israel Belongs to Jews

3 weeks ago

A Look at What’s Ahead for 2021

2 weeks ago

Islamic State’s (ISIS, ISIL) Horrific Magazine

6 years ago

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

By entering your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

contact us

[email protected]
1-888-610-2221

locate us

2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Suite 395, Washington, DC 20006

follow us

Youtube
Facebook-f
Twitter

News & Analysis

  • American Values & Politics
  • Sharia Governance & Values
  • US Hate Groups & Crimes
  • US Islamist Activity
  • Overseas Extremism
  • Fact Sheets & Special Reports
  • Subscribe

Intelligence Network

  • About Clarion Intel Network
  • Fuqra Files
  • US Extremists Map

Films

  • Iranium
  • Honor Diaries
  • Faithkeepers
  • Kids
  • Short Films

Activism

  • Preventing Violent Extremism
  • Exposing Foreign Funding
  • Our Speakers

about us

  • Who We Are
  • What We Do
  • Advisory Board
  • Partnerships
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Donor Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Clarion Project Inc. 2020 — All Rights Reserved
501(c)(3) EIN #20-5845679
Menu
  • News & Analysis
    • All News & Analysis
    • American Values & Politics
    • Sharia Governance & Values
    • US Hate Groups & Crimes
    • Overseas Extremism
    • US Islamist Activity
    • Fact Sheets & Special Reports
    • Subscribe
  • Intelligence Network
  • Films
  • Activism
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Contact Us
Search
Donate