Abstract
Associative activity, now expanding among immigrant women, particularly coming from Africa, mainly focus on supporting immigrants in their everyday life in French society. Their activities are of socio-cultural mediation, as they intend to assure communication between institutions and immigrant women, excluded from legal procedures because of their unfamiliarity with French legislation. The main characteristics of this association are trans-ethnicity, social proximity and accessibility. In particular, their knowledge about the two cultures allows them to treat also so-called private matters concerning everyday lives and/or female bodies such as polygamy and female genital mutilation. The fact that African women discuss private matters in public lets us appreciate their capability of mobilizing capital as social actors. By analyzing their forms of expression, we can reconsider the line of demarcation between the public and private spheres in the nation-state.
