Paris 2024 or the ordinary games of French Islamophobia?

The world is watching in awe as the Paris Olympic Games unfolds on the banks of Seine, bringing together the world’s best athletes for what is billed as the planet’s greatest sporting spectacle.

To celebrate 100 years since the 1924 Olympics in the French capital, Paris has spared no expense: the most closely followed sporting event on the planet is hosting an impressive set of 34,000 journalists, with a proposed ticket sales of 10 million for the 329 events and expects four billion TV viewers tuning in from all corners of the world.

Yet, while the City of Lights shines in the spotlight, an unsettling shadow looms over the spectacle: the blatant exclusion of French Muslim athletes who wear the hijab.

As the President of the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), a French citizen and a former swimmer who competed at the national level, I am compelled to address the gendered Islamophobia that tarnishes the spirit of inclusivity that the Olympics should embody.

All-round criticism

As if these Olympics weren't criticised by many French who denounce the eviction of students from their residences, the “social cleansing” of certain banks of the Seine River to evacuate the homeless and more, the French government seizes every opportunity to revive its irrational “Muslim problem”.

On September 24, Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera made it abundantly clear: “The representatives of our delegations on our French teams will not be wearing the veil” at the Paris 2024 Games.

The justification given is the age-old “attachment to a regime of strict secularism” to which all the French delegation must submit. The government considers French athletes to be public servants, and as such, they are subject to an obligation of neutrality that prevents them from wearing any religious symbol.

This political choice is all the more alarming since France is the only nation to impose such a ban on its delegation during its own Games.

Timothee Gauthierot, basketball coach and town councillor in Noisy-Le-Sec, questions such a measure: “When a country imposes a headscarf ban [...], we'll be the first to say it's not normal [...]. Well, likewise, when we're the only ones to ban it, we should ask ourselves the same question [...].

It is not surprising that on August 6, Gauthier was suspended from his role as a basketball coach in Noisy-Le-Sec by the French Federation of Basketball for his support of female Muslim athletes. This incident highlights that also those who oppose discriminatory policies face repercussions.

Haifa Tlili, a post-doctoral researcher specialising in Islamophobia in sports and in Muslim women's relationship with their bodies, bluntly criticises the nauseating double discourse.

“I would have liked to be thrilled for the Olympics, but because of this subject, I have seen a blatant hypocrisy coming out […]. The very fact that this subject is being kept out of the spotlight calls into question all the principles of inclusion, of living together, of feminism, of sport for all [...]”.

An ‘exclusive’ France

Far from being something new, this hijab ban on French athletes merely reflects an irresolvable Franco-French conundrum that has been the subject of much debate in recent years.

The banning of headscarves in sports is intertwined with the broader context of rising Islamophobia in France.

Haifa Tlili argues that there is a continuous thread between the well-known Creil affair in 1989, the 2004 law banning the wearing of religious signs in public schools, the 2016 inter-ministerial guide drawing up a list of ‘weak signals’ of radicalisation, and the ongoing hijab ban for the French team.

The sociologist asserts that this Islamophobic climate “appeared before sport [...]. But when it comes to sport, it's the cornerstone of well-being, pleasure and health, and that's no longer possible […] The inconsistency is obvious”.

This is how Thimothee Gauthierot, Haifa Tlili and Helene Ba co-founded Basket Pour Toutes. Officialised in 2023, this collective “is part of the mobilisation against the exclusion of female players who wear a sport headgear on the court, which began in the summer of 2022”.

Some of its members have gone through painful experiences before.

“The discourse is so violent. When you come onto the pitch, and you want to join, and they say, 'No, you can't go in', you end up saying to yourself that maybe they're right, maybe I'm the problem and I need to take off my hijab,” one of the members of Basket Pour Toutes said in a testimony.

Basket Pour Toutes then acts as a reference point for them. Open to all players, wearing hijab or not, it also includes “coaches, club presidents and human rights defenders”, united to make basketball “accessible to all, so that no player discovers discrimination on a basketball court”.

As FEMYSO, we cannot overlook the discriminatory policy against Muslim women and stand still.

The Olympics should be a celebration of diversity, unity and equality. By excluding athletes wearing the hijab, France is sending a message that Muslim women are not welcome in the public sphere.

This is not just about sport, it’s about the fundamental right to participate fully in society.

The battle against Islamophobia, particularly in a post-election environment influenced by the far-right, is critical more than ever, and it requires national and European efforts.

Are the Olympics then really a reflection of a diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe? Or an open celebration of Islamophobia?