GENEVA: The United Nations has emphasized its stance against imposing dress codes on women, in response to France’s decision to prohibit its Olympic athletes from wearing the Muslim hijab during the 2024 Paris Games.
United Nations rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado addressed the matter during a press briefing in Geneva, stating, “No-one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not wear.”
Hurtado’s statement came after the French sports minister, Amelie Oudea-Castera, reiterated on Sunday that the country’s athletes would not be allowed to wear headscarves during the Games, aligning with France’s stringent principles of secularism.
Oudea-Castera emphasized the government’s stance against any display of religious symbols during sporting events, stating, “That means a ban on any type of proselytising. That means absolute neutrality in public services. The France team will not wear the headscarf.”
While Hurtado did not directly comment on France’s specific position, she underscored the relevance of the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which opposes discriminatory practices.
France’s Ban on Hijab at Olympics
Underlining the obligations of states party to the convention, including France, Hurtado stated that they are required to “modify social or cultural patterns which are based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either gender.”
In France, issues related to religious dress intersect with the nation’s strict adherence to secularism, designed to maintain state neutrality in religious affairs while upholding citizens’ rights to practice their religions freely.
French laws already prohibit the wearing of “ostentatious” religious symbols in certain contexts, including state schools and by civil servants, and it banned full-face coverings in 2010. In June, France’s Council of State upheld a ban on women footballers wearing the hijab.
The debate over religious attire continues to raise questions about the balance between personal religious expression and the principles of secularism in France and beyond.
