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On the eve of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amnesty International (AI) has published a report titled «We Can’t Breathe Anymore. Even Sports, We Can’t Do Them Anymore», criticizing the ban on French women athletes competing with sports hijabs.
Imposed by the host country's authorities, this ban is seen as a violation of international human rights law. Hélène Bâ, a player on the French basketball team, stated it «is a clear violation of the Olympic charter, values, and provisions, and an infringement on fundamental rights and freedoms».
The Impact on Muslim sportswomen
Amnesty International details the devastating consequences of this discriminatory act for Muslim women and girls in French sport. Such restrictions hinder not only their participation in sporting activities but also their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and health.
«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», said Anna Błuś, Amnesty International’s Women’s Rights Researcher in Europe.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been criticized for its inadequate response to a joint letter calling for the bans to be lifted. It claimed that «freedom of religion is interpreted in many different ways by different states». The IOC’s response did not mention other rights violated by the ban, such as «freedom of expression and access to health», Amnesty argued.
France remains the only country in Europe to have adopted a ban on religious headgear in various sports, excluding Muslim women from football, basketball, and volleyball. This not only harms their physical and mental well-being but also contrasts with the dress regulations of other international sporting bodies such as the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the International Football Federation (FIFA), and the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB).
A walk of shame
Poignant testimonies from Muslim sportswomen, such as Hélène Bâ, who has not been allowed to take part in a basketball competition since October 2023, demonstrate the impact of this discriminatory policy applied by France. «Mentally it is also hard because you really feel excluded…Especially if you go to the bench and the referee tells you to go to the ladders [stands]. Everyone sees you…it’s a walk of shame», she regretted.
Founé Diawara, co-chairwoman of the «Les Hijabeuses» football collective, rounded off her testimony, declaring : «Our fight is not political or religious but centered on our human right to participate in sports. No policymaker should dictate what a woman can or cannot wear, and no woman should be forced to choose between the sport she loves and her faith, cultural identity, or beliefs».
Amnesty International calls on the French authorities, sports federations, and the IOC to take immediate action to rescind all bans on headscarf-wearing athletes, to make sport more inclusive and accessible to all, regardless of their religion or culture.
