The controversial move by French sports minister to ban the hijab stirs online protests as restrictions on Muslim attire tighten.
French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera declared on Sunday that veils would not be permitted for French athletes participating in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games, sparking outrage worldwide.
Speaking on the France 3 show Sunday In Politics on Sunday, Oudea-Castera left no room for interpertations, maintaining that the ban on head coverings was non-negotiable.
“The representatives of our delegations in our French teams will not wear the veil,” she asserted.
“As for the French position on the subject, we have, thanks to a recent decision of the Council of State, expressed very clearly with the prime minister our attachment to a regime of strict secularism, strictly applied in the field of sport,” she added. “This means the prohibition of any form of proselytism, the absolute neutrality of public service.”
This announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny of Muslim attire in France, particularly after the recent ban on schoolgirls wearing the abaya.
France already enforces a ban on Muslim women wearing veils or hijabs within public institutions, including government offices, schools, and universities. Many employers also unofficially stir away form hiring women who wear the headscarf or start to during their employment.
The purported reason behind these controversial measures is to force Muslims to fall in line with France’s robust interpretation of laicite, or state-enforced secularism, which means they want to keep religious symbols out of government institutions.
While theoretically applicable to all religions, these stringent policies predominantly impact Muslim women who wear headscarves or abayas for cultural or religious reasons.
Responding to the recent ban targeting Muslim athletes, the United Nations made it clear that it strongly disapproves of most dress codes for women.
“No-one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not wear,” United Nations rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva.
Oudea-Castera also took aim at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for their differing stance on the issue. “The IOC, which governs these rules of participation, is following a logic which considers the wearing of the veil not as religious but as cultural,” she pointed out.
While FIFA has allowed women to wear the hijab since 2014, the French Council of State ruled in June that wearing the veil in women’s football would remain prohibited, giving the French Football Federation leeway to enact rules it deems necessary for the “smooth running” of matches.
The controversy surrounding Muslim attire in France escalated last month when Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced the ban on abayas in educational institutions, citing concerns about secularism.
“I have decided that the abaya could no longer be worn in schools,” Attal said in an interview with the French TV channel TF1.
“Secularism means the freedom to emancipate one’s self through school,” he asserted, describing the abaya as “a religious gesture, aimed at testing the resistance of the republic towards the secular sanctuary that school must constitute.”
Doha News
