Netherlands’ Muslim athlete Sifan Hassan earned global acclaim after receiving her gold medal at the final 2024 Paris Olympic Games ceremony on Sunday, August 11, while wearing a hijab, in a defiant message again France’s controversial hijab ban.

Sifan delivered an incredible burst in the final 250 meters of the women’s marathon, clinching gold with an Olympic record time of 2:22:55.

The Dutch runner had already picked up two bronze medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m races at this Olympics.

The 31-year-old became the first athlete to medal in all three of the long-distance events at the same Olympic Games since Czech Emil Zatopek in 1952.

In previous Olympics, the men’s marathon has taken place on the final day with the medalists being presented on the podium at the closing ceremony. Paris was the first Olympics to boast gender parity, and the women’s race was run on the final day meaning the women were presented with their medals at the closing ceremony instead.

While receiving her gold medal in front of fellow athletes and a packed crowd at the Stade de France, Hassan wore a maroon-colored hijab.

The image of her stood on top of the podium struck a chord with fans after the host country controversially banned its own athletes from wearing head coverings at the Olympics.

Social Media Reactions

Viewers took to X to praise Hassan with one user saying: “Sifan Hassan wearing her hijab to her gold medal crowning ceremony for the women’s marathon, after France banned females from wearing hijabs at the 2024 games. She is so powerful. What a woman!”

Another said: “Congrats to Hassan! Love seeing the image of her wearing hijab in the host country that banned its own athletes from wearing it.”

A third user claimed it was an ‘unforgettable moment for her and the entire world’.

Similarly, Instagram users praised her, with one commenting: “The last medalist of Paris 2024 is a woman who chooses to wear hijab. The irony of that being in a host country that bans hijab in sport is incredible.”

A person wrote: “How ironic! A slap in the face of xenophobic France, which prevented its own athletes from participating because of their hijabs. And there stands Sifan proudly receiving her gold medal while wearing her hijab. FANTASTIC!”

“SUCH A STATEMENT WEARING HIJAB THANK YOU SISTER,” a netizen added.

Last September, French Minister of Sports Amelia Oudea-Castera announced athletes representing France would not be allowed to wear the hijab.

Last September, French Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea-Castera announced that athletes representing France at the Paris Games would not be allowed to wear the hijab in line with the country’s secularism principle and rules against displaying religious symbols at sporting events.

The rule was swiftly met with a strong wave of backlash, as The Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation argued: “This ban contradicts the principles of equality, inclusivity, and respect for cultural diversity that the Olympics stand for.”

Amnesty International labeled the Hijab ban as “discriminatory” and “hypocritical,” a week before the Games commenced, and wrote: “French authorities made it emphatically and unashamedly clear… that their proclaimed efforts at improving gender equality and inclusivity in sports do not apply to one group of women and girls – those Muslim women and girls who wear religious head coverings.”

The human rights organization reportedly highlighted how banning the hijab was particularly jarring considering the 2024 Olympics was labeled as the first gender-equal Olympics – yet Muslim women were being discriminated against and singled out.

Source: MSN

As the world gets ready to celebrate sport and the best athletes and coaches in the world, there is a push by Olympic organizers to emphasize gender equality at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

On March 8, 2024 (not coincidentally International Women’s Day), the International Olympic Committee announced there would be complete gender parity on the field at this summer’s Games.

“We are about to celebrate one of the most important moments in the history of women at the Olympic Games, and in sport overall,” IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement.

But the reality is that gender parity doesn’t necessarily mean open to all women. There are a number of women who have been dreadfully left behind in all the excitement about women athletes and by the hosts who claim to be celebrating their existence.

France bans women in hijab (an Islamic headscarf) from participating in sport. As the Olympic host, France could not ban athletes from all around the world from wearing a headscarf, so they banned their own athletes instead. When this was announced last September, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “No one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear, or not wear.”

How can France claim to champion women when it is stripping them away from sport in a move that is blatantly opposed to the IOC’s own human rights framework? The Olympic Charter states clearly: “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

France claims that secularism, which is at the heart of French identity, is at risk of being compromised by Muslim women in headscarves on the field of play. And because the country has determined that athletes representing France are technically public servants, then a strict regime of secularism is required. Recreational leagues and teams are not permitted to allow hijabs anywhere near the court, field or gym.

Why is a hijab-clad woman sprinting down the sideline and scoring a goal for France considered a threat to identity? How including women in sport, and showing solidarity with them as they choose to act on their personal rights of religious expression, is bad? Why not grow sport in different communities in France and let Black and brown women who are deeply connected to sport play and enjoy life? Apparently there’s no joie de vivre allowed for you in sports if you are a Muslim woman who chooses to cover.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International released a report about the violations of Muslim women’s and girls’ rights because of the hijab sports ban in France.

It’s baffling and enraging to read the testimonies of many of the athletes from Muslim communities who are not permitted to play. The groups like Sports & Rights Alliance, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the IOC objecting to the ban and demanded that they “publicly call on sporting authorities in France to overturn all bans on athletes wearing the hijab in French sport, both at Paris 2024 and at all times and all levels of sport.”

There are groups like Les Hijabeuses and Basket Pour Toutes that continue to play and advocate publicly for hijab-wearing athletes. They hold festivals and tournaments but they are not included in any recognized type of sport in France and have no possibility of further opportunities.

On the same day that the IOC released its own statement about gender parity, more than 80 athletes, including WNBA stars Natasha Cloud, Layshia Clarendon, USA Olympian Breanna Stewart and Olympic medallist fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad signed an open letter to urge the French Federation of Basketball (FFBB) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to immediately overturn the hijab ban and uphold international human rights laws and standards in sports.

The IOC replied that discrimination of this kind is against the Olympic Charter, but added, “freedom of religion is interpreted in many different ways by sovereign states. This is reflected in national approaches to sport, too. In practice, the wearing of the hijab, veil or headscarf is highly debated in many countries.”

The letter then asserted that competing for French national teams meant those athletes are civil servants and must adhere to te “principles of secularism and neutrality.” Basically, athletes and participants have to adhere to principles of the Olympic host nation even if those principles are against the actual Olympic Charter.

This ban on hijab that is meant to uphold French identity isolates and marginalizes French Muslim women even more. It seems almost surreal that the Olympics are being hosted by a country that actively and ruthlessly excludes women from sport.

Source: CBC News