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- A bill to prohibit all “apparently religious” clothes and symbols, including scarves on the head, during competitions will be discussed since Tuesday in the Upper House of the French Parliament.
- Amnesty International urges French legislators to reject the bill, saying that it would be discriminatory.
- The lower house of the French Parliament will have the last word. To approve there, the bill would need a coalition of forces that do not usually collaborate.
Amnesty International urges French legislators to reject a bill this week that would prohibit scarves in all sports competitions.
The bill is backed by right -wing senators and will be discussed since Tuesday in the upper house of The French Parliament. Its objective is to ban all “apparently religious” clothes and symbols during competitions. Amnesty International says that the measure would be discriminatory.
It is likely that the vote resumed the persistent debate on secularism, still volatile more than a century after the 1905 law on the separation of the Church and the State that established it as a principle of the French Republic.
Until now, sports federations have been free to decide whether or not to allow scarves in the head, with two of the most powerful sports, football and rugby in the country, opting to ban them.
The bill is at an early stage and this week’s vote marks the beginning of a long legislative process with an uncertain result. Even if the senators vote in favor, the future of the bill will remain unclear since the lower house has the last word.
To approve, the bill would need a coalition of forces that generally do not collaborate in the Low House deeply divided.
Nouhaila Benzina de Morocco walks on the ground during a familiarization tour before its group H match of the World Cup of Women with Germany in Melbourne, Australia, on July 23, 2023. (Photo AP/Victoria Adkins, Archive)
Amnesty International calls come later French sprinter sounkamba sylla He said last summer that he was excluded from the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympic Games because he uses a hijab. Finally, he was allowed to participate, with a cap to cover his hair.
France enforces a strict principle of “Lakité”, freely translated as “secularism.” In the Games, the president of the French Olympic Committee said that its Olympics were bound by the secular principles that apply to public sector workers in the country, which include a prohibition of children and other religious signs.
“In the Paris Olympic Games, French’s prohibition to French athletes who wear handkerchiefs on the head of competing in the games caused international outrage,” said Anna Błuś, an international amnesty researcher on gender justice.
“Only six months later, the French authorities not only double in the discriminatory prohibition of the Hijab, but try to extend it to all sports.”
Experts designated by the UN Human Rights Council Previously they criticized the decision of the French football and basketball federations to exclude players who use the Hijab, and the French government’s decision to prevent their athletes from using handkerchiefs in the head representing the country in the Paris Games.
Amnesty International said that the bill in reality is directed Muslim women and girls excluding sports competitions if they wear a handkerchief in the head or other religious clothes.
“Laribité … which is theoretically integrated in the French Constitution to protect everyone’s religious freedom, it has often been used as a pretext to block the access of Muslim women to public spaces in France,” said Amnesty International.
“For several years, the French authorities have promulgated laws and policies to regulate the clothing of Muslim women and girls, in a discriminatory way. Sports federations have followed their example, imposing hijab prohibitions in several sports.”
Two years ago, the highest administrative court in France said that the country’s football federation had the right to prohibit scarves in competitions despite the fact that the measure can limit freedom of expression.
By exercising the principle of religious neutrality enshrined in the Constitution, the country’s football federation also does not facilitate things to international players who wish to refrain from drinking or eating from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, a Sacred Islamic month.
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The supporters of the bill cite increasing attacks against secularism in sport, arguing that its central values are based on a principle of universality. To protect sports land from any non -sports confrontation, they say, a principle of neutrality must be implemented to ensure that no political, religious or racial demonstration or propaganda can be promoted.
The bill also establishes that using part of a sports installation as a place of worship would be a misuse of its purpose, and prohibits the use of religious clothing, such as Burkini, in public pools.
“By placing the use of a handkerchief in the spectrum of” attacks against secularism “, ranging from” permissiveness “to” terrorism “, this legislation, if approved, would boost racism and reinforce the growing environment Hostile faced by Muslims and perceived is Muslim in France, “Amnesty International said.