The United Nations has raised concerns over France’s ban on its Olympic athletes wearing headscarves at the upcoming 2024 Paris Games, sparking a fresh debate on religious expression in a nation with a long history of restricting Islamic attire in the name of secularism.
During a press conference in Geneva, a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, Marta Hurtado, criticized the decision, asserting that “No one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not wear.”
Hurtado highlighted that under international human rights law, limitations on the expression of religious beliefs are only justifiable in specific circumstances, such as those related to public health or safety.French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra announced on a news program that Olympic competitors representing France in the upcoming Games would not be allowed to wear hijabs.
This restriction aligns with the ban on hijabs by the French soccer federation, a ban that was upheld by the French Council of State in June.Critics argue that such policies are discriminatory and contribute to Islamophobia.
They contend that these measures, while seen as safeguarding national unity and preventing perceived religious influence on society by the government, have the opposite effect.
As France prepares to host the Summer Olympics for the first time in a century in July, these policies have the potential to project the country’s identity to the world, an identity increasingly defined by the principles of secularism.
France’s efforts to restrict the presence of religion in public life have often centered on Islamic dress, grounded in the French concept of “laïcité” or secularism enshrined in its constitution.
State-run schools have banned hijabs since 2004, under a law prohibiting “ostentatious” religious symbols. This law extends to items like crosses and turbans. In 2010, France became the first European country to ban full-face coverings, including niqabs, in public areas. Recently, it extended the ban to abayas, the long robes worn by some Muslim women, in public schools.
These policies carry significant weight in France, a nation with the highest Muslim population in Europe, accounting for approximately 10 percent of its populace, as per government data.
John Bowen, an anthropology professor at Washington University in Saint Louis and author of “Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space,” traces the roots of these bans back to 1789 when Catholics were perceived as a political threat to the French state.
He explains that the opposition to displays of religion is about maintaining the unity of the Republic.While the French constitution protects freedom of religion, it diverges from U.S. secularism in that it focuses on collective freedom from religious institutions rather than individual freedom of religion.In response to a French bill that aimed to ban hijabs at all sporting events but failed to pass last year, Ibtihaj Muhammad, a fencer and the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing at the Olympics, emphasized on Instagram that “every woman should have the choice to wear what she wants and the opportunity to play sports, regardless of her faith.” She further stated that challenging restrictions on hijabs only strengthened their resolve to wear them.