France’s Olympic Hijab Ban Violates International Law And Exacerbates Tensions
(ANALYSIS) Sadly, France has barred its athletes from wearing a hijab while taking part in the Paris-based Olympic and Para-Olympic games. In so doing it continues its radical campaign to ban religion from anything other than the most private matters.
This ban does not apply to athletes from other countries, and many women participants from the Muslim world will have still their heads covered, even though their own country, unlike France, might not require it.
But France in an authoritarian manner still regards its athletes as necessarily surrogates of the state who must, therefore, abide by the country's highly restrictive version of secularism, laïcité.
READ: How India’s Religious Headwear Ban Affects Muslims And Not Hindus
This follows on from France’s refusal, unlike the United States, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and most other countries, to accommodate Muslim soccer players during the month of Ramadan, which this year took place from March to April.
During that month, observant Muslims who can do so must fast, including abstaining from water, from sunrise to sunset. This meant that, while playing in an evening soccer match, Muslim players, including perhaps France’s greatest player, Kylian Mbappé, would not have eaten or drunk anything for 12 hours. This subjected them not only to physical hardship but doubtless also affected their playing ability. Soccer is strenuous and will necessarily take a double toll on hungry and thirsty players.
Muslims players, supported by most other players, asked for an accommodation of a minute or so break in the game at sunset so that they could drink some water and have a brief snack, maybe just some crackers. In response, the French soccer federation (FFF) stated that “part of its mission is to defend the country’s strict adherence to secularism in public life” and the accommodation was refused.
On May 10, 2024, Mbappé announced that he would leave his long-time French team, the great Paris Saint-Germain, and would transfer to Real Madrid. Doubtless, the dominant reasons for this move include the vast amounts of money involved, plus the fact that Spain in general and Real Madrid in particular are now the dominant powers in the soccer world. But there remains the suspicion that his and others' harsh treatment in France may have been a factor in the move.
For the Olympics itself, Amnesty International has released a report analyzing and condemning France's decisions. It holds that "The ban on French women athletes who wear headscarves from competing at the Olympic Games breaches international human rights laws and exposes the discriminatory hypocrisy of French authorities and the craven weakness of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)...." This latter is because is, despite repeated appeals, the IOC has so far “refused to call on sporting authorities in France to overturn their bans on athletes wearing the hijab at the Olympics and at all levels of sport.”
Amnesty maintains that “France’s bans on sports headgear contradict the clothing rules of international sports bodies such as FIFA (International Football Federation), FIBA (International Basketball Federation) and FIVB (International Volleyball Federation). It looked at "rules in 38 European countries and found that France is the only one that has enshrined bans on religious headwear either on the level of national laws or individual sports regulations.”
The effect of these restrictions on participation in the higher levels of sports such as the Olympics or in any state-recognized sports does not stop there. Any aspiring young Muslim athlete who believes that she should or must wear a hijab must look ahead and realize that they will be barred from the higher reaches of their sport.
The report recounts: “Hélène Bâ, who hasn’t been allowed to compete in basketball since October 2023, told Amnesty International: ‘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.’”
France, and many other European countries, clearly have very real problems dealing with the non-integration of many Muslim minorities, and it is difficult to find responses that both resist radicalization and properly recognize and give place to religious plurality.
But France's current policies with respect to sport, and especially now the Olympics, violate international human rights standards and needlessly alienate Muslims. They could instead be an opportunity to use sports as a means of wholesome integration.
Religion and race are very different things — since all major religions are now multi-racial and multi-cultural — but a racial reference may be illuminating.
I grew up in and went to matches in Liverpool, where soccer was almost a religion, or perhaps vice versa. The first major black player for Liverpool was Howard Gayle. I was ashamed when in his first home game he was greeted with vile racist chants. But his response to this was his superlative play that silenced the bigotry. It becomes hard to hate a player who is a key to your victory.
For Americans perhaps the best parallel is Jackie Robinson, the first African American admitted into major league baseball. He cemented his position not by protest but simply by being the best player on the field.
Now, Liverpool's major striker, Egyptian-born Mohamed Saleh, is greeted with chants of “Mo, Mo, Mo.” Not as jeers, but as acclamation of a player named Mohamed.
Of course, these sporting examples do not themselves bridge deep social divides and tensions. However, it cannot but help that tens of thousands of Liverpool supporters chant the praises of a man named Mohamed.
France has real problems with terrorism and with common separatist Muslims' rejection of French society. But its current radical secularity is both unjust and exacerbates the very problems it is intended it solve.
Paul Marshall is Wilson Distinguished Professor of Religious Freedom at the Institute for Studies of Religion, director of the Religious Freedom Institute’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, and author of over 20 books on religion and politics.