French Muslims in Perspective by Joseph Downing

Author:Joseph Downing
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030161033
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4.8 Visual Blurring: Victim’s Portraits As a Means of Deconstructing Dominant Stereotypes

It is necessary to take into account the visual aspects of the social world in the construction of not only minority identities, but also in politics and international relations more generally (Hansen, 2018). The victim profiles in Le Monde are accompanied by photo portraits of the victims, which work in a similar but much more nuanced way. This is because they are banal portraits of the individuals in daily life and are not explicitly rendered meaning by the graphics which surround them in the same way as the Twitter images. However, they are significant because they represent the face-to-face connection that is important in the work of Levinas (1985) and Butler (2006). While in this case these pictures give a human face to the image, and thus a relatable humanity to the victims, they also make broader statements about the relation of Muslims to society in visual ways. The images that accompany the profiles show actors in postures and dress, like the Muslim veil, which have been used discursively to securitise and marginalise Muslims in France.

One of the most prominent securitising dynamics in the French, and indeed European, contexts vis-à-vis Muslims has been entrenched in a deeply gendered area—discussions around the religious dress of Muslim women. The French state’s repeated attempts to regulate the public dress of Muslim women have been notable by their frequency, persistence and polemical effervescence. These legal efforts, not to mention the political debate generated in right-wing politics, have rendered the headscarf in particular a label of the problematic incompatibility of European and Islamic values. Examining the victimhood profiles with this in mind generates an interesting discussion of the ability of images to deconstruct minorities as security threats by showcasing victims in a variety of previously securitised gender roles. Thus, a form of visual desecuritisation can be observed in these images when read in tandem with the information given in the victim profiles.

It should be noted that there is a significant diversity in the way that Muslim women are depicted in these online memorials. There are those commemorated without overt religious symbols in their photos. Houda Safi, the café manager whose occupation is discussed above, can be seen in her profile not conforming to the stereotypes of the threatening Muslim woman wearing a headscarf so prominent in the securitising discourse around Muslim women in France. Once again, this banalisation of Muslims in this instance nuances public Muslim identity by demonstrating that not all Muslim women conform to this image of the veiled radical woman.

The biographies in their depictions of victimhood go beyond this banalisation and also engage with the more securitised parts of French Muslim identity in all of its diversity, including women who wear headscarves. Thus these profiles that show women in more overtly religious garb could be seen to go some way in nuancing notions of the good and bad Muslims. The indiscriminate nature of mass killings clearly does not discriminate in these cases between people on any grounds—be they religion, ethnicity, age or occupation.

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