GENEVA: United Nations rights experts on Monday slammed decisions in France barring women and girls who wear the Muslim headscarf from sports competitions as “discriminatory”, demanding they be reversed.

France invoked its strict rules on secularism to ban its athletes from wearing religious symbols, including the hijab, during the Paris 2024 Olympics. And France’s football and basketball federations have also opted to exclude players wearing the headscarf from competitions, including at the amateur level.

These decisions “are disproportionate and discriminatory, and infringe on their rights (of French athletes) to freely manifest their identity, their religion or belief in private and in public, and to take part in cultural life,” said a statement signed by eight independent UN experts.

“Muslim women and girls who wear the hijab must have equal rights to participate in cultural and sporting life, and to take part in all aspects of French society of which they are a part,” they said.

The statement was signed by the UN special rapporteurs on cultural rights, on minority issues, and on freedom of religion and belief, and members of the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls. They are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

France’s laws on secularism are intended to keep the state neutral in religious matters, while guaranteeing citizens the right to freely practice their religion.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2024