Could the headscarf become the norm in sports? In any case, that is the issue being considered by the Council of State, reports Le Figaro in a guest article on Friday November 26. The author, Honorary Councillor of State Jean-Éric Schoettl, points to the desire of the “hijabeuses” to wear an Islamic veil covering their hair during official sports competitions. They had applied for this to the French Football Federation (FFF), among others, but the FFF quickly rejected the idea and eventually forwarded it to the Council of State. The body had not yet taken a stand. Jean-Éric Schoettl warned that a positive decision by the Council of State could bring down “a strategic bastion of resistance against Islamism in sport”.
The former secretary general of the Constitutional Council (1997-2007) also said in Le Figaro that this demand was “nothing surprising” since sport “has become the preferred terrain of Islamist infiltration for about twenty years”. He recalled in passing a 2017 Senate report that had already denounced “radicalisation” in “sporting circles”.
However, Jean-Éric Schoettl pointed out that “football offers the strongest resistance to the extremists at federal level”.Indeed, the FFF prohibits the wearing of any sign that “conspicuously expresses a political, philosophical, religious or trade union affiliation”. Nevertheless, the International Football Federation allows it. “In order to defend the values of sport in everyday life, the fight against religious appropriation and withdrawal into the communitarian sphere must be fought without weakness or ambiguity,” Jean-Éric Schoettl concluded in Le Figaro. The polemic over the wearing of headscarves in sports circles is likely to continue for a long time, as Paris will host the Olympic Games in 2024.