A group of UN human rights experts has just issued a press release declaring that the ban on headscarves by certain French sports federations (such as soccer and basketball) is discriminatory and should be overturned.

The experts stated in their press release:

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

They also noted that the French authorities had taken no steps to ensure that bans adopted by sports federations were proportionate and based on the grounds recognized in international law to justify a limitation on human rights, contrary to what France asserted in December 2023 following an initial UN declaration to this effect.

The experts continued:

The neutrality and secularity of the State are not legitimate grounds for imposing restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief. Any limitation on these freedoms must be proportionate, necessary to achieve one of the objectives set out in international law (security, public order and health, rights of others), and justified by facts that can be demonstrated, and not by presumptions, assumptions or prejudices. .

In a French national context where Muslim women and girls are at the forefront of Islamophobic discrimination, this UN communiqué is a reminder that they have the right to exist in the French public space, just like everyone else.