Caps and Hijabs at the Paris Olympics 2024

Moira Vincentelli reflects on racialised and religious discrimination during the 2024 Summer Olympics. Moira is a part-time PhD student in Fine Art at Wrexham University who makes media-based collages about hijab issues. 

In the Olympic summer of 2024, another negative media story exploded as France was already dealing with unwelcome coverage about the quality of the Seine water and performance enhancement issues. Sounkamba Sylla, a French Sprinter and a member of the 400-metre women’s relay team; being one of three Black women and the only Muslim member of the team, announced on Instagram that she would not be allowed to appear in the opening ceremony. Sylla stated on her Instagram, as reported by The Guardian, “You are selected for the Olympic Games, organised in your country, but you can’t take part in the opening ceremony because you wear a scarf on your head.”

Photographs shared across Sylla’s Instagdram profile, illustrate that she routinely wears a head covering – a sports hijab or a black turban – even during her competition, including when previously representing France; however, at the Olympic ceremony, it was deemed unacceptable. The carefully designed uniform for the French team, produced by the prestigious brand Berluti, was to reflect French ‘elegance and style’. This included jacket lapels in the colours of the French flag, similar coloured pocket handkerchiefs for men, and only a discreet neck scarf for women but no headwear. Sylla was representing her country in an official capacity and could not wear a hijab as she was expected to comply with the French law of laïcité, usually translated as ‘secularism’, based on the principle of separation of church and state, which outlawed the public wearing of visible religious symbols. 

The issue has a long history. After the French Revolution in 1789, with its famous watch cry ‘Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité’, successive governments have asserted the principle of secularism – a position originally mainly directed at the Catholic Church. Public state schools in France must uphold this directive. In the post-colonial period, growing Muslim communities settled in France, many from North Africa and the country now has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. The principle of laïcité was increasingly directed towards this growing group and female dress, above all the hijab. In 1989, three French schoolgirls were expelled when they asserted their right to wear the hijab in school. The debate rumbled on. In an attempt to be more conciliatory, in 1994 a decree made the distinction between ‘discreet’ religious symbols, which would be tolerated, while ‘ostentatious’ religious symbols, such as large crosses or Islamic headscarves, would not be allowed in state schools.

France prides itself on an inclusive society and does not record race, religion or ethnic origin in census returns, but the wider issues in global politics; the rise of extremist movements, and terrorist incidents such as the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015 and Nice in 2016, have spread fear and have hardened French allegiance to the principles of laïcité. Young women of faith find themselves the focus of this dilemma. Furthermore, it often excludes them from sports activity. In 2019, the French-owned sportswear firm Decathlon launched a sports hijab - an item available on the internet from various producers. The firm found that it attracted such hostile social media response and ‘unprecedented threats’ that it withdrew from selling the item in France.

The plight of Sylla threw up the issue again. The legal position taken in France seemed even more untenable as the International Olympic Committee is quite clear that there are no restrictions on athletes wearing the hijab or any other religious garment. Female athletes from many countries wear various versions of modest clothing, including the hijab, and in 2024 there were many to be seen around the Olympic village. In an, arguably, disingenuous damage limitation exercise, the French sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, explained to CNN News that a “compromise had been found”. A special blue cap had been designed with an extra band to cover her hair – for many Muslim women, the important aspect of the hijab. Sylla would be allowed to attend the opening ceremony. She wore the same cap when the French team reached the final of the 400-metre relay.

Ideals of ‘colourblind equality’ and the legal rejection of collecting statistics on race, ethnicity and religion, represent a challenge for social scientists and lawyers to demonstrate discriminatory practices which are experienced widely by racialised groups in France. As a Black Muslim woman, Sylla’s experience is shared as a harrowing example of compounding intersectional discrimination, three-fold.  Her brave stance at the Paris Olympics has found support from athletes globally and highlighted once more the way a simple piece of textile can tell an important story.
 

NB: A version of this piece was presented at Chester University [online] on Tuesday 29th October for the ‘Black History Month: Reclaiming Narratives’ series.