Olympic Games without veils: France, champion of discrimination?

In the eyes of Amnesty International, the ban on French athletes wearing the headscarf from participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games “flouts international human rights law and reveals the discriminatory hypocrisy of the French authorities and the weakness and cowardice of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).”

In a report titled “We can’t breathe anymore. Even sport can’t do it anymore,” Amnesty International warns of the devastating consequences of headscarf bans for Muslim women and girls in sport at all levels in France. “Banning French athletes from competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games if they wear sports head coverings undermines claims that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are the first to achieve gender parity and exposes the racial and gender discrimination that characterizes access to sport in France,” said Anna Błuś, a researcher on women’s rights at the global organization. According to them, the discriminatory rules governing what women can wear “violate the human rights of Muslim women and girls and have devastating consequences for their participation in sport, hampering efforts to make sport more inclusive and accessible.”