Salimata Sylla was about to lead her team onto the basketball court, as she had done many times before.
On that Sunday morning, she and her teammates had completed a three-hour bus trip from the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers to a rival club in northern France. They had changed and warmed up, and Sylla, the team captain, was ready to go.
But moments before tipoff, she was told she could not play. The reason? Her headscarf. More than two years later, Sylla is still barred from competing under the French basketball federation’s jurisdiction.
The 27-year-old former point guard is among thousands of young Muslim women in France who are sidelined from competitive sport because of bans on uniforms and other clothing that have religious or political significance. These rules, critics say, disproportionately target hijab-wearing Muslim athletes.
Now, a contentious bill backed by right-wing politicians that would ban headscarves in all sporting competitions has cleared its first legislative hurdle in the Senate. If passed by the lower house, it would enshrine into law what has until now been decided by individual sporting federations.
Supporters say the proposed law is a necessary step to protect secularism — a pillar of the French Republic. Opponents denounce it as discriminatory, Islamophobic, and a violation of both the rule of law and the very concept of secularism.
Athlete who wears hijab says it’s a personal decision
In January 2023, she was told to remove her hajib if she wanted to play against a rival club. Sylla refused, citing personal conviction and the fact that her sports hijab was officially approved and deemed suitable for competitive use. The basketball federation bans all head coverings as inappropriate for play, contrary to the rules of the international federation.
The French federation did not provide The Associated Press with an explanation for the ban on hijabs in competitions.
Sylla has stopped playing with her former club. She continues hosting games outside of the federation’s jurisdiction, organizing monthly tournaments in Paris and its suburbs that are open to women playing basketball with or without a hijab.
Secularism still a hot-button issue
Until now, sports federations have been free to decide whether to allow headscarves.
A date has yet to be set for the bill to be debated in the lower house of the Parliament. But the senators’ vote in favor of the bill has already reignited the ongoing debate on secularism and the separation of church and state. It’s still a hot-button issue more than a century after a 1905 law established it as a principle of the French Republic.
French secularism — “la laïcité” — affirms the concept of religious freedom, while stipulating that the state does not favor any religion and remains neutral. It is, however, seen by critics as a pretext to discriminate and restrict Muslims’ access to public life.
“Les Hijabeuses” at the forefront
A group of headscarf-wearing soccer players called “Les Hijabeuses,” who campaign against the ban, say the new bill would unfairly force Muslim women to choose between wearing a headscarf or playing a sport.
After France’s highest administrative court ruled in 2023 that the soccer federation can ban headscarves in matches, the Hijabeuses have lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights against France, alleging a violation of their freedom of religion.
Supporters of the bill cite growing attacks on secularism in sport, arguing that its core values are based on a principle of universality. To protect sports grounds from any nonsporting confrontation, they say, a principle of neutrality needs to be implemented to ensure that no political, religious or racial agenda can be promoted.
But Nicolas Cadène, the former secretary-general of the now defunct Observatory for Laïcité, a nonpartisan institution that previously advised the French government, disagrees. He says the principles of French secularism cannot be used to justify the headscarf ban because it's not the role of a secular state to judge a religious symbol.
A heated debate sparking divisions
The bill is dividing the government and pitting athletes against each other.
Five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner — a towering figure in French sports — argued that the bill was targeting one religion, and that French society should instead focus on promoting equality. Mahyar Monshipour, a former professional boxer born in Iran, hit back, asking Riner not to get involved in a debate he did not understand. Monshipour claimed that the headscarf is meant to conceal the bodies of women and used to legitimize inequality between men and women.
The dispute has also exposed cracks within the coalition government. While some ministers have expressed doubts about the bill, it has the strong backing of hard-right heavyweights.
Lawmakers have previously approved a bill to strengthen oversight of mosques, schools and sports clubs. With France bloodied by terror attacks, there is widespread sentiment that Islamic radicalization was a danger. But critics also viewed that 2021 law as a political ploy to lure the right wing to President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party ahead of the presidential election that Macron won.
With the next presidential election two years away, the debate over radical Islam has resurfaced, returning to the spotlight following the release recently of a government-commissioned report that raised concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts to expand its influence in France through grassroots organizations, including sports clubs.
France stands alone with religious headwear ban
Amnesty International said the new bill targets Muslim women and girls by excluding them from sporting competitions if they wear a headscarf or other religious clothing. Ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, Amnesty published research looking at rules in 38 European countries and found that France was the only country to ban religious headwear in sport.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports
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