Muslim Women's Bodies in a Mediterranean City: Female Activism in Ceuta

This paper focuses on the Generation-Z women in Ceuta protesting the anti-Muslim discourse propagated by the extreme right. A type of collective action taking place against the backdrop of a Mediterranean border-town, where strong social divisions persist along with great political polarization. This urban ethnography was carried out in Ceuta between 2021 and 2022 with specific focus on the protests around the use of the burkini in the city's swimming pools and beaches. It seeks to understand how Muslim women talk about their bodies, their right to occupy urban spaces and be present in the city, and the role feminism plays in their collective action. These protests have been interpreted by the extreme right as proof that the young women want to live “in a ghetto”, though paradoxically, the results of this study show the opposite: their desire to exercise their Spanish citizenship, their willingness to call into question both the Muslim and Christian patriarchy and to defend their local identity (Kaballa culture). The research shows a new type of activism emerging in this isolated city of the Peninsula, one that is episodic and reactive, capable of resisting hate speech, turning one particular problem (the use of the burkini) into a reason of general interest (the defense of living in peaceful coexistence and the fight against racism and Islamophobia). They define themselves as intersectional and diverse feminists, have no stable organization, but are very active on social networks. They are prepared to take action should the situation so require it. They see religion as a vector of participation and not as a form of participation, being the social injustice inscribed in the Ceuti territory and heir of the North-South inequality, what really motivates their collective action.