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

It comes amid a 365 percent surge in anti-Muslim hate incidents across the UK since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

She said: “There’s been an explosion of Islamophobia since October 7 – but there’s also a huge underreporting of the issue.”

“In my constituency, people report it to me but not the police. They kind of just put it down to the price you pay for being a Muslim in this country, (but) reporting is then what drives police policy, social policy and potential legislation. We all have a role to play.”

Ms Mahmood made the comments after the recent screening of HIJABI, a documentary created by BAFTA award-winning filmmaker, Samir Mehanovic, at the House of Commons.

The documentary charts the journeys of five British women who choose to wear the hijab and their experiences of Islamophobia in the UK and was unveiled to mark the International Day To Combat Islamophobia and International Women’s Day.

The heartwrenching story of a Muslim grandmother left devastated after an Islamophobic attack by teenagers and forced to flee Britain formed part of the testimonies heard in the film.

During a panel discussion after the screening, Ms Mahmood, who has been MP for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010, added: “Islamophobia has passed the dinner party test – it’s seen as acceptable. This is not just a Muslim problem, it should be addressed by all of society.”

According to Tell Mama, an organization dedicated to fighting Islamophobia, 65 percent of all incidents target women, with those who wear a hijab or niqab especially vulnerable.

Lee Anderson, the former Tory deputy chairman, was suspended from his party last month after accusing Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, of being controlled by Islamists.

Mr Anderson has refused to apologise for the remarks despite Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first Asian prime minister, labelling them “wrong”.

Speaking after the screening, Labour MP Afzal Khan said: “With Islamophobic hate crime having trebled since October and senior members of the Conservative Party spouting Islamophobia through the media in recent weeks, there has never been a more pressing time to listen to the testimonies of visibly Muslim women in Britain.

A government spokesperson told The Independent: “British Muslim women make a huge contribution to the United Kingdom and in strengthening the ties that bind our country together.

“It is unacceptable for anyone to feel unsafe while practising their religion and we take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Muslim hatred.

“We expect the police to fully investigate all hate crimes and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to make sure the cowards who commit these abhorrent offences feel the full force of the law.”

Shaista Aziz, who was among the first Labour councillors to resign in protest over Keir Starmer’s response to the Gaza attacks said: “When it comes to Islamophobia, there’s rightly lots of focus on the government and what is they are doing and not doing. There’s no focus though, on the man who wants to become the next leader of this country: Keir Starmer.”

A recent poll by HOPE not Hate revealed that 58 percent of Conservative Party members think Islam is a threat to the British way of life while Labour’s support amongst British Muslims has plummeted amid major concerns about Sir Keir Starmer’s handling of the Gaza war.

London-based charity Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU) reports that many Islamophobia incidents have involved people being targeted over their support for Palestine, as the Israel-Hamas war spirals on.

Source: The Independent

Those “certain groups of women” are Muslim women.

It is ironic that the vote will take place on the eve of International Women’s Day on March 8, which strives for a gender-equal world. Removing a Muslim woman’s right to wear a face veil is not equality.

Why should a Muslim woman who chooses to cover her face because of her faith not be allowed to do so? People of different faiths adhere to different dress codes, yet it is Muslim women who bear the brunt of this policing around the world.

Switzerland is far from the first country to propose laws limiting Muslim women’s choice of attire: France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Latvia, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Republic of the Congo, Chad, Gabon and Sri Lanka all have laws prohibiting the wearing of religious face coverings. These bans are called a “security measure,” even though women’s role throughout history in political violence is not linked to the clothing they wore.

Source: Washington Post