2024 Olympics: unlike other athletes, French women will not be able to wear the veil

It’s an unsurprising decision. Guest of the show Sunday in politics on France 3 this Sunday, September 24, the Minister of Sport Amélie Oudéa-Castéra indicates that” the representatives of our delegations in our French teams will not wear the headscarf » during the Paris Olympic Games, which will take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024.

However, the International Olympic Committee authorizes athletes to wear headscarves

A declaration based on the decision of the Council of State to maintain the ban on wearing the headscarf. Last June, the institution took up this legal case, after the collective “Les Hijabeuses” contacted it to obtain authorization to play with the headscarf in competitions organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). The Council of State ultimately decided to maintain this ban, against the advice of its public rapporteur, who had said yes favorable.

“ Thanks to a recent decision by the Council of State, we have expressed very clearly to the Prime Minister our attachment to a regime of rigorous secularism, rigorously applied in the field of sport.the Minister of Sport then declared that he believes he wants to ban” every form of proselytism, the absolute neutrality of the public service “.

Read also: The Hijabeuse fight against the “French cultural exception” which bans the veil for female footballers

However, this decision goes to against the current of the regulations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which allowed sportswomen to wear a headscarf during competitions. A logic that, according to Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, “ consists in understanding the use of the veil not as a religious factor, but as a cultural factor “.

Since 2014, FIFA has also allowed players to wear the hijab. Last July, during the Women’s World Cup, Moroccan defender Nouhaila Benzina became the first player to wear it in a World Cup.