The United Nations (UN) has expressed its opposition to France’s decision to prohibit its athletes from wearing the hijab, a headscarf worn by some Muslim women, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The UN’s human rights office said on Tuesday that it was against most dress codes for women and that they should be free to choose what to wear.
The UN’s spokesperson, Liz Throssell, told reporters in Geneva that the UN was “concerned” by the French ban, which was announced by the country’s sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, last week. Maracineanu said that French athletes would have to respect the “neutrality of the state” and the “values of the republic” and that they could not wear any “ostentatious religious symbols” during the Olympic Games.
Throssell said that such restrictions could violate women’s rights and freedoms and that they could also have a negative impact on their participation in sports and public life. She said that the UN supported the right of women and girls to express their cultural and religious identity and to enjoy equal opportunities in all aspects of society.
“We do not see how a ban on wearing a headscarf at the Olympics would advance these goals,” she said. “On the contrary, it could have the opposite effect of reinforcing negative stereotypes about Islam and fueling intolerance, stigmatization and violence against Muslims, especially women.”
She added that the UN urged France to reconsider its decision and to ensure that its laws and policies were in line with its international human rights obligations.
France has a strict policy of secularism, which separates religion and state, and which has led to several laws banning or restricting religious symbols in public spaces. In 2004, France banned the wearing of conspicuous religious signs, such as the hijab, the Jewish Kippah or the Sikh turban, in state schools. In 2010, it banned the wearing of full-face veils, such as the niqab or the burqa, in all public places. In 2016, it also banned the wearing of burkinis, full-body swimsuits worn by some Muslim women, on some beaches.
These laws have sparked controversy and criticism from human rights groups, Muslim organizations and some foreign governments, who have accused France of discriminating against its Muslim minority and violating their freedom of religion and expression. France has defended its laws as necessary to preserve its secular values, to protect women’s rights and to prevent radicalization and terrorism.
The issue of Islamic symbols has become more sensitive in recent years, following a series of deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France. The latest attack occurred in October 2020, when a Chechen refugee beheaded a teacher, Samuel Paty, who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students as part of a lesson on freedom of speech. The attack triggered a wave of solidarity with Paty and a crackdown on Islamist groups by the French government.
The French ban on hijabs at the Olympics has also provoked reactions from other countries and organizations. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that it was in contact with the French Olympic Committee to clarify the situation and that it would respect the Olympic Charter, which prohibits any form of discrimination.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said that it condemned the ban as a “flagrant violation” of human rights and an “insult” to Islam. The Turkish Foreign Ministry also said that it rejected the ban as a “reflection of France’s problematic approach towards Islam” and an “attempt to impose its own ideology on others”.
