France will not be allowing French athletes to wear hijabs during the 2024 Olympic Games which will begin in Paris on Friday, July 26. The headscarf ban does not apply to non-French athletes.
Human rights groups called the ban discriminatory. Representatives for Amnesty International said the move is unfair and a violation against Muslim women and girls’ human rights.
“Banning French athletes from competing with sports hijabs at the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first gender-equal Olympics and lays bare the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France,” a representative for Amnesty International said.
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According to Amnesty International, France is the only European country that bars its athletes from wearing religious head coverings.
A coalition of sporting organizations wrote a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) demanding it call on France to reverse its position.
In response, the IOC claimed France considers its Olympic athletes to be civil servants publicly serving their country and that “freedom of religion is interpreted in many different ways by different states.”
Many French sports federations prohibit the wearing of religious headwear, creating barriers for Muslim women and girls to compete.
A representative for Amnesty International said athletes shouldn’t be expected to follow their government’s policies “that actually discriminate and violate human rights.”
One basketball player told Time magazine that she fears young Muslim girls won’t be able to see themselves as athletes and that some French players feel like they’re being forced to choose between their identity or playing the sport.
Headscarves in France have been an ongoing issue. In 2004, the French government banned the display of “conspicuous” religious symbols — such as the wearing of a hijab — at state schools.
