'My Hijab is not your business': Olympic athletes denounce French headscarf ban

By Haleema Saheed, ITV News Assistant Producer

For Diaba Konate, a basketball player who excelled for the French national youth team growing up, the prospect of a home Olympics should have been a moment of ultimate sporting pride.

Yet as the Olympic opening ceremony signalled the start of the games in Paris, Konate finds herself on the sidelines, not due to injury, but due to a French law that prevents her from competing with her headscarf.

As France prepares to host the 2024 Olympics, an event centred around celebrating athletes from all backgrounds, cultures and faiths - the host nation has found itself heavily criticised for refusing to lift its Hijab (Headscarf) ban.

Announced in 2021, France's 'Islamist separatism' has been deemed hugely controversial, impacting many areas of French society, including competitive sports.

The rule effectively excludes anyone wearing a sports hijab from participating in competitive sports, a ban that doesn't just affect on-field players, but also coaches and referees.

Last September, with the upcoming Olympics renewing conversation around the ban, the French sports minster, Amelie Oudea-Castera, announced that French athletes will not be allowed to compete while wearing a Hijab, and refused to overturn the ban despite pleas from international human right groups to the International Olympics Committee (IOC).

The IOC clarified that Muslim athletes from other countries would be allowed to wear the Hijab in the Olympic village and whilst competing, but French athletes were to uphold the 'principle of secularism' and the idea of 'absolute neutrality in public services'.

Amnesty International labelled the Hijab ban as "discriminatory" and "hypocritical" in a report released this month.

The report highlighted how banning the hijab is particularly jarring considering the 2024 Olympics has been labelled as the first gender equal Olympics - yet Muslim women are being discriminated against and singled out.

For Konate, who had been forced to move to the United States to continue her playing career, the disappointment was evident.

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She said: "It's very frustrating to be excluded from representing my country or just being able to play basketball simply because of my religious identity as a Muslim woman who chooses to wear hijab.

"I can't fully express my faith and pursue my athletic aspiration."

The IOC noted that French athletes were treated as civil servants and had to "respect" French law.

It said: "This means that they must respect the principles of secularism [laïcité] and neutrality, which, according to French law, means prohibition from wearing outwardly religious symbols, including the hijab, veil and headscarf when they are acting in their official capacity and on official occasions as members of the French national team."

Hijab-wearing athletes from other countries have spoken out over the ban.

Tina Rahimi, an Australian Muslim Hijab wearing boxer, took to Instagram to share her concerns.

She posted: "Thankfully I'm still able to participate in my hijab, which I'm so grateful for.

"But it's so unfortunate for the athletes in France because it has nothing to do with their performance. It should not get in the way of you being an athlete.

"It's so hard for you to be an Olympic athlete and to think that you have to give away your faith to participate in these events. I believe everyone should be equal."

She added: "People grow up wanting to go to the Olympics and it's all that they work towards, and all that they want to achieve. That would be taking away someone’s dream.

"I stand by all the French girls… It's really, really unfortunate."

Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Hijab-wearing athlete to represent team USA in the 2016 Rio Olympics, posted a picture on Instagram, holding up a sign with the words 'My Hijab is not your business'.

When asked about this by Pop Sugar, she described it as a "gross violation of our human rights as women, as Muslims, our religious freedom".

She hopes people will stand up and support Muslim women at this time, on the fight for equality.

Anna Błuś, Amnesty International's Women's Rights Researcher in Europe, said: "Banning French athletes from competing with sports hijabs at the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first Gender Equal Olympics and lays bare the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France.

"Discriminatory rules policing what women wear are a violation of Muslim women's and girls' human rights and have a devastating impact on their participation in sport, blocking efforts to make sports more inclusive and more accessible."

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