With the Paris Olympic Games around the corner, a huge controversy has broken out with regard to the dress of the participating athletes. It is learnt that France has decided to allow the women participants of other countries to wear a hijab if they wish, but has banned its own women athletes from wearing the hijab.
The Olympic Games are more than just the world’s biggest sports festival. With participants arriving from all the corners of the world, the games are a meeting point of cultures, languages, customs and foods. Many athletes are dismayed that a dress restriction will be enforced for a certain section of the participants.
UN Human Rights Office reacts
Reacting to the decision, a spokesperson of the United Nation Human Rights Office said that one should not impose their views on what a woman should wear or not wear as long as it was decent. Amnesty International also released a statement that said that prohibiting a Muslim woman from wearing a headscarf in public places violated her rights.
Former Lebanese footballer Assile Toufailly who now lives in France is of the view that the French society is tolerant of all faiths but the government is not. “There is hate for Muslim people in recent times and it is showing up in their decisions in sports arenas,” she said in an interview.
IOC has no objection
Last year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made it clear that it has no objection to different dress codes being followed by different participants. The IOC allowed Muslim women to wear a hijab if they chose to do so.
“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the battle cry of the downtrodden people who overthrew a tyrannical regime during the French Revolution of 1789. By and large France has tried to adhere to that concept till the modern times but now many are questioning where is equality?
But some women are against hijab
But in international sport, there are also women who have rebelled against being forced to wear a hijab. Iranian archery participant Pamida Ghasemi created a sensation when she removed her hijab in the middle of an awards ceremony in Tehran. Another Iranian, sport climber Elnaz Rekabi, competed in an event in Korea without wearing a hijab in support of anti-government protests in her own country.
Shabnim Ismael of South Africa holds the record as being the fastest bowler in the world in women’s cricket. She never wears a hijab while playing. As long as 40 years ago, Morocco’s Nawal el Moutawakel became the first Arab woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games. She did not wear any head covering.
French Law against religious symbols
In 2004 a law was passed in France banning the ostentatious display of religious symbols from educational institutions and government offices. Sikh turbans, large crucifixes and hijab fell within that law. But this will be the first time that the Olympic Games will see such a rule being implemented.
Will France change its decision before the Games begin? Throughout the world attitudes are changing. Last year Moroccan woman footballer Nouhaila Benzina made history at the Women’s Football World Cup. After FIFA began to allow the wearing of headscarves, Benzina became the first player to play with a hijab at the World Cup.
At the Rio Olympics of 2016, fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad made headlines when she became the first US athlete to compete at the Olympics while wearing a headscarf. She was later one of the athletes used to launch a hijab made specifically for sport by a global American sports brand.
So there is a trend towards egalitarianism in global sport. Sports administrators have realised that dress should be left to individual choice. The concerned participant should be allowed to decide upon it as long as he or she wears the country’s national colours. Sooner or later France will have to fall in line. But whether it will happen before the Paris Games takes place remains to be seen.
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