INTERSECTIONALITY IN THE REPRESENTATION OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE FRENCH PRINT PRESS
INTERSECTIONALITY IN THE REPRESENTATION OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE FRENCH PRINT PRESS

Summary/Abstract: Examining the media representation of Muslim women in the contemporary French and Francophone press is one of the main objectives of our work. From this perspective, intersectionality addresses issues such as gender and race in the construction of written media discourses. Theorized by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991), this analytical framework enables us to uncover the various forms of representation linked to gender identity, religious affiliation, and socio-political context.The analysis is based on a corpus of articles from the French daily Libération, published between 2019 and 2025. Our discursive approach combines thematic analysis with enunciative positioning and discourse construction. This methodology allows us to distinguish the different discursive forms through which the media figures of Muslim women are shaped. The discursive aim of our study is twofold: on the one hand, to explore how such media discourses, while reinforcing recurring ideas about the representation of Muslim women, may simultaneously create discursive safe spaces for them or, conversely, reconstruct their image as they themselves affirm it; on the other hand, to understand how Islamophobia in the media contributes to the representability of Muslim women in the public sphere.Drawing on the works of Müşerref Yardim (2011), Fiske and Taylor (2011), as well as Leyens, Yzerbyt and Schadron (1996), we show that the social and political tensions underlying media constructions oscillate between stereotyping and invisibilization. The intersectional perspective highlights the modes of ethnic identification and social surveillance that contribute to shaping an image of Muslim women marked by forms of exclusion linked to gender and appearance.

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