Athletes frustrated as France mulls Muslim headscarf ban in sport

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Minutes-L-Juli, France: On the outskirts of Paris, the 44-year-old French Muslim weightlifter Silvi Arena focuses strongly and cleanses 80kg and weight on its veil.

The single mother was proud of her four children when she became a French national champion in her amateur category last year after the game was discovered at the age of 40. But now the Muslim will face the concern that it will no longer be able to compete as the French government is pushing a new law to ban head scarves in domestic sports competitions.

“It seems that they are trying to restrict their freedoms every time,” Arena, a passionate athlete, who trains five days a week. “It’s disappointing because we just want to play.”

Under the French secular system, government employees, teachers, students and athletes who represent France abroad cannot wear clear religious symbols, such as a Christian cross, a Jewish cotton, Sikh turban or a Muslim head scarf, also known as hijab.

So far, individual national sports federations can decide whether to allow hijab in domestic competitions. But the purpose of the new legislation is to ban the head in all professional and amateur competitions across the country.

Backers say it will unite the confused rule, promote secularism and fight extremism. Critics say it will be the only latest principle that discriminates against Muslim women. The bill was passed in the Senate in February and is soon to vote in the French Parliament’s Lower House.

Some supporters call “Islamist encroachments” in a country that has been shaken by deadly jihadist attacks in recent years. But critics have pointed to a 2022 Interior Ministry report that the data has “failed to show the structural or even important trends of radicalism in sports”.

Last month, French Olympic Judo Champion Teddy Rainer, a French Games star, said France was “wasting its time” with such debates and should think of “equality rather than attacking the same religion”.

Right -wing Home Minister Bruno Retilio replied that he “dissatisfied” as a “symbol of submission” as the head scarf. Arena, who changed at the age of 19, said her head was allowed by the Weightlifting Federation – there was never a problem with fellow weightlifters.

He said the game has allowed him to befriend a completely different background. He said, “The game brings us together: it forces us to know each other, go beyond our prejudices.”

French Football and Basketball Federations are among those who have banned religious symbols, including head scarves. In 2023, the country’s highest administrative court upheld the rule in football, saying the federation was allowed to impose “need for neutrality”.

Last year, UN experts described the rules of both sports as “inappropriate and discriminatory.” If such legislation passes, it is difficult to guess how many women can be prevented from competing.

But AFP spoke to several women whose life was already affected by similar rules. The 21 -year -old Frenchman of the Algerian generation, Samiya Boljedari, said she had been playing football for her club in Materis village for four years when she decided to cover her hair at the end of high school.

She kept playing with her team, but after a series of consecutive weeks after allowing her club to go to the field, she asked her to take off her hijab or leave. He said, “They ended my happiness, just like that, the scarf really made me sad.” The French brand is from a law of secularism 1905 that protects “freedom of conscience”, separates the church and state, and ensures the state’s neutrality.

The country’s constitution states that France is a secular republic. The 1905 law said that the 1905 law, a researcher at the University of Tolos Capitol, said that “was planned to save the state from potential excesses from religion,” in recent years was “made of weapons” against Muslims.

He said, French secularism has been turned into a tool for its modern interpretation to overcome the religion of religion within the public place, especially and mostly, targeting Muslims. “Minister for Sports Mary Barcek warned against wearing a head scarf with radicalism in the game last month.

But Minister of Justice Gerald Darmanin said that if the government did not defend secularism, he would empower the right right. In the Owais region north of Paris, 24 -year -old Audri Dux said that after converting to Islam a few years ago, he stopped participating in basketball games. He said instead, he continued training with his former colleagues and started coaching an adult club’s team. But when she goes to sports at the end of the week, she is not allowed to go to a court bench with a head scarf – so she is forced to scream from bleach.