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This paper proposes to read the relation between French society and its Muslim « Others » in a geopolitical perspective, which relies on historical and sociological analyses showing the close connexions between sexual and racial issues. It illustrates ways in which the control of feminine bodies has become a battlefield in the so-called « clash of civilizations », and more specifically, how female bodies are used as visual metaphors of territorial control concerns. It focuses on the veil and its representations, to show the continuities with the colonial period, and the place granted to sexuality in the political sphere.