A worker drives a golf cart inside the BMX freestyle competition venue ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 19, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
David Goldman/AP/AP
Hide caption
Toggle caption
David Goldman/AP/AP
The 2024 Olympics begin this week, but France will not allow athletes to wear headscarves during the games, seemingly at odds with the Olympic Charter’s calls for respect for religion and the protection of human rights.
A recent report from Amnesty International called France’s restrictions on religious dress blatantly discriminatory, a researcher from the human rights nonprofit told NPR. Morning Edition Not only is this measure unfair, it could create systemic problems for female athletes in France.
Anna Bluchet, a researcher at Amnesty International, said the ban has broader implications for women in sport, dashing the hopes of female athletes in France. Amateur soccer, basketball and volleyball leagues also do not allow women to wear the hijab during games.
“They are constantly being asked to take off their clothes, to give up parts of their identity, if they want to progress,” said Breusch. “Many of the women I spoke to said they didn’t see a future for themselves in France and were thinking of leaving the country to play for another country’s national team.”
Technical reasons for the French ban
In a statement to NPR, the International Olympic Committee said host countries consider athletes representing their country to be public servants.
“This means that they must respect the principles of secularism and neutrality, which, according to French law, means that they are prohibited from wearing outwardly religious symbols, including hijabs, veils and headscarves, when carrying out their official duties and at official events as members of the French national team,” the statement read. “A similar secularist approach also applies to civil servants and teachers, for example.”
France’s Sports Minister, Amélie Oudea-Castella, emphasised the idea that the country’s national team is considered part of the civil service and therefore subject to the same restrictions that apply to all French civil servants.
Broesch said these secularist policies were being unfairly applied to French athletes.
“I don’t agree that players on the French national team should be considered public servants,” she said. Morning Edition“They should not be asked to play roles beyond their primary purpose of participating in sport and competing for their country, nor should they be asked to comply with the political choices and policies of a government that in fact discriminates and violates human rights.”
Basketball player Hélène Bas is one of the French athletes who will be banned from professional sports competition from October 2023 onwards.
She is one of the founders of the French organisation Baskets Pour Toutes (Basketball for All), and her story was documented in an Amnesty International report in which she said: “Everyone sees you go from the bench to the ladder, and for them it’s just: ‘You can’t play’, but for you it’s humiliating.”
This digital story was edited by Obed Manuel.
