“Welcome to the First Islamophobic Olympics in History!”

The move to prohibit French athletes from wearing hijabs at the Olympics has drawn extreme criticism and condemnation from human rights advocates and sparked a surge of online outrage, with some social media users demanding a boycott of the games. 

On June 11, several organizations, including the Sport and Rights Alliance, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International, and Basket Pour Toutes, issued a letter to the International Olympic Committee. 

The letter called on the IOC to demand that French sports authorities lift their ban on athletes wearing hijabs, including for the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

Amnesty International stated that by banning the hijab, the Olympic host country is violating multiple international rights treaties it has agreed to. This includes conventions on eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and racial discrimination, as well as the human rights commitments outlined in the IOC’s framework. 

In a new report, Amnesty International highlighted that the ban on French women athletes wearing hijabs at the Paris Olympic Games exposes the "discriminatory hypocrisy" of French authorities and the "craven weakness" of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 

Titled "We can’t breathe anymore. Even sports, we can’t do them anymore," the report examined the impact of the hijab ban on Muslim women and girls across all levels of sport in France. 

“Preventing Muslim women and girls from fully and freely participating in sports, for leisure and recreation or as a career, can have devastating impacts on all aspects of their lives, including on their mental and physical health,” Amnesty said in its report. 

The NGO also spoke with Helene Ba, a basketball player who hasn't been allowed to participate in competitions since last October. Ba described the mental toll of being sidelined, feeling deeply excluded, and experiencing embarrassment when directed to the sidelines while others play. 

United Against Islamophobia in Sports 

Activists and rights groups have frequently voiced concerns that the heightened scrutiny of the hijab and Muslim women's attire in France, often justified by laïcité (secularism) which prohibits religious symbols in state institutions, reflects a normalized Islamophobia. 

In France, a strict mandate bars public servants from donning religious symbols on duty and forbids Muslim teens from wearing the hijab in schools. Recently, the government extended this policy, outlawing the abaya dress in public schools last September. 

Welcome to the first Islamophobic Olympics in history!” French historian Fabrice Riceputi said on social media over the ban. 

A spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also expressed disappointment, remarking at a Geneva press briefing that the UN body "maintains that no one has the right to tell a woman what she can or cannot wear." 

In October, six UN human rights experts wrote a letter to French officials, expressing concern about the ban's potential infringement on the rights of Muslim women and girls to participate in sports and its possible contribution to increased intolerance and discrimination against them. 

Some groups argue that the ban prevents many Muslim women from accessing the essential training and competitive opportunities needed to achieve the highest levels in their sports. 

Despite mounting pressure, the IOC has steadfastly declined to urge French authorities to rescind the ban. 

However, the ban directly opposes IOC regulations, which classify the headscarf worn by many Muslim women as cultural rather than religious attire. 

The IOC responded that France's ban on sports hijabs fell outside the scope of the Olympic movement, noting that "freedom of religion is interpreted in various ways by different states. 

Among 38 European countries surveyed by Amnesty International, France is the sole nation that has implemented legal or sports regulatory bans specifically targeting religious headwear.