Olympia: Olympic Games: headscarf debate in Paris

France is the only democracy where a number of sports associations ban the wearing of religious clothing in competitions. This ban particularly affects Muslim girls and women who do not want to take off their hijab even during sports. It is a rule that is part of the laws and regulations of the past twenty years: In France, authorities, schools and private employers can ban the wearing of headscarves, usually with reference to “secularism”, i.e. the separation of state and religion .

“But the fact is that, according to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, no state ideology, not even the attitude towards secularity, is a reason to restrict freedom of religion and freedom of expression,” says Katharina Masoud from Amnesty International in Germany. “Neither a headscarf requirement nor a general headscarf ban is compatible with human rights.”

Traumatizing experiences

In a new report, Amnesty International documents examples from competitive and popular sports. For example, female soccer players, basketball players and volleyball players were repeatedly asked by male referees to remove their headscarves before their games. Such an experience can have traumatic consequences far beyond the competition, says Katharina Masoud: “Social participation and health promotion are restricted as a result. And girls and women who want to wear a headscarf have fewer figures to identify with in sport.

This ban on religious clothing in France contradicts the rules of international sports federations. The world football association Fifa lifted the “headscarf ban” in 2014, the world basketball association Fiba in 2017. The fact that France is pursuing its own path is probably also due to the political debates of the past decades. The right-wing extremist party Rassemblement National in particular repeatedly discusses the headscarf as a supposed symbol of migration, identity and security.

“The sports associations manipulate secularism for their own purposes and want to make signs of religion invisible,” says the French sociologist Haifa Tlili. »But secularism means that you can develop as much as you want, even with a hijab. The sports associations reject a constructive debate. “So we have to look for support outside of France.”

Haifa Tlili has been researching religious issues in sport for years. And she supports French footballers and basketball players in networking with human rights organizations. Together they take part in campaigns on social media or write open letters of protest. Now, before the Olympic Games in Paris, they are receiving a particularly large number of inquiries.

Nobody should disturb the Olympic party

In an initiative, 70 managers from French clubs signed a letter against the ban. This information was not yet public, but it was leaked to the sports associations. “The clubs were then put under pressure,” reports Haifa Tlili. »If they continued to get involved in this issue, their funding could be withdrawn. In France, no one is supposed to disrupt the party before the Olympics.«

In response to a request for this article, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made it clear in a written statement that playing sport is a human right. Athletes are free to wear a hijab in the Olympic Village or in the sports facilities. The rules of the international sports associations apply to the competitions themselves. However, the IOC does not want to condemn the fact that the rules of some French associations contradict the rules of their world associations.

In the statement, the IOC also refers to French legislation and refers to a decision by the highest administrative court in Paris: “Last year it rejected the appeal of a group of female athletes and declared the French Football Federation’s hijab ban to be appropriate and proportionate.”

Other sports associations allow the hijab

Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International do not consider such statements to be sufficient. They demand that the IOC assert its influence in French sport. And they point to alternatives: In other countries, sports associations do not specifically address the headscarf in their regulations. Others, such as the Dutch Football Association or the Danish Basketball Association, have specified exactly how a headscarf should be worn to avoid injuries to the neck.

In Germany people take a different path than in France. The “Moving Future” project at the German Olympic Sports Confederation, for example, advocates for diversity in management bodies. Here, women with hijabs are also seen as an asset.