Human rights experts from the United Nations demanded that the French decision to exclude women and girls who wear the hijab from sporting events be reversed on Monday.
During the Paris 2024 Olympics, France cited its stringent secularism regulations to prohibit athletes from wearing religious symbols, such as the hijab.
Players who wear the headscarf are also prohibited from participating in amateur competitions by France’s basketball and football federations.
These choices “are lopsided and oppressive, and encroach on their privileges [of French athletes] to openly show their character, their religion or faith in private and in broad daylight, and to participate in social life,” said an explanation endorsed by eight free UN specialists.
They stated, “Muslim women and girls who wear the hijab must have equal rights to participate in all aspects of French society of which they are a part, including cultural and sporting life.”
Members of the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls, in addition to the UN special rapporteurs on cultural rights, minority issues, freedom of religion, and belief, signed the statement.
They are UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent experts who do not speak on behalf of the UN.
The goal of France’s secularism laws is to protect citizens’ right to freely practice their religion while maintaining the state’s neutrality in religious matters.
They prohibit civil servants and school teachers from wearing “ostentatious” religious symbols, among other things.
“The neutrality and secular nature of the state are not legitimate grounds for imposing restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief,” however, the experts insisted.
According to them, “any limitations of these freedoms must be proportionate, necessary to reach one of the objectives stated in international law (safety, health, and public order, the rights and freedoms of others), and justified by facts […] rather than by presumptions, assumptions, or prejudices,” and they added that this was the case.
“France must take all measures at its disposal to protect women and girls who choose to wear the hijab, safeguard their rights, and promote equality and mutual respect for cultural diversity in a context of intolerance and strong stigmatization.”
