In June, France’s Council of State enforced a ban on female footballers wearing hijabs
Paris:
The United Nations (UN) stressed on Tuesday that it opposes most dress codes for women after France banned its Olympic athletes from wearing the Islamic hijab at the 2024 Games in Paris.
“No one should dictate to a woman what she should or should not wear,” Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the U.N. rights office, told reporters in Geneva.
Hurtado’s comment came after France’s sports minister said the country’s athletes would not be allowed to wear headscarves during the Games, in line with the country’s strict rules on secularism.
French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera reiterated on Sunday that the government is opposed to any display of religious symbols during sporting events.
“What does that mean? This means a ban on any form of conversion. That means absolute neutrality in public services,” she told the France 3 television channel.
“The French team will not wear the headscarf.”
Hurtado did not directly address France’s position.
But she stressed that the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women excludes discriminatory practices.
“Each state party to the convention – in this case France – has a duty to change social or cultural patterns based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of both sexes,” Hurtado said.
“Discriminatory practices against a group can have harmful consequences,” she stressed.
“That is why…restrictions on the expression of religions or beliefs, such as clothing choices, are only acceptable under very specific circumstances,” she explained.
According to her, that meant circumstances “which meet legitimate concerns of public safety, public order, public health or morality in a necessary and proportionate manner.”
In France, the issue of religious dress goes to the heart of the country’s strict rules on secularism.
These are intended to keep the state neutral in religious matters while guaranteeing citizens the right to practice their religion freely.
French laws prohibit the wearing of “ostentatious” religious symbols in certain contexts, such as in state schools and by civil servants.
In 2010, full facial coverings were banned.
In June, France’s Council of State enforced a ban on female footballers wearing hijabs.
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