Before the deputies of the Cultural Affairs Committee, the Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous gave a position of principle: the LR bill adopted in committee in the Senate banning religious symbols in sports competitions “could garner assent” of the government, he declared Tuesday, October 29.
Although in the conditional, the affirmation has the effect of relaunching the debate around the wearing of religious symbols in sport. The bill to which the minister refers was initiated in March 2024 by Michel Savin, the Les Républicains senator from Isère. After its adoption in committee on June 5, 2024, the text could never be debated in public session, a collateral victim of the dissolution recorded four days later by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
“Defend the position of the Council of State”
Facing the deputies, Gil Avérous recalled his wish “to initiate work with institutional stakeholders and the sports movement in order to clarify differences in application” of the principle of secularism in sport. “On the wearing of religious symbols and respect for secularism, we will continue to defend the position of the Council of State which is the strictest todayhe insisted. The highest administrative authority considered, in a judgment rendered on June 29, 2023, that “the delegated federations are responsible for a public service mission and as such the French teams, like the agents of the federations, participate in the execution of a public service and are therefore subject to the principle of neutrality”.
Behind the expression “wearing religious symbols”would the minister particularly target the wearing of the Islamic veil? This position came the day after, Monday October 28, a press release from United Nations experts calling for the ban on the wearing of the hijab by French sportswomen to be overturned. Mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, they consider that this decision is “discriminatory”.
In their press release, the three experts indicate that “Muslim girls and women who wear the hijab must have equal rights to participate in cultural and sporting life, and to take part in all aspects of the French society of which they are a part”. Les Hijabeuses, a collective of veiled sportswomen founded in France in 2020 also reacted: “For us, this restriction is much more than a sporting obstacle: it limits our fundamental right to exercise our passion freely, without a choice imposed on our identity”they said in a press release.
Between the federations, assessments differ
Apart from the French teams, the minister also explained that each federation had the freedom to “determine via its regulations the specificities of its discipline and the rules which govern its competitions and its events under the control of the ministry”. From one sport to another, the lines vary. The French Football Federation has banned the wearing of the hijab, including at amateur level, just like the basketball federation which has aligned itself with this position. On the contrary, the handball federation is very open on the subject.
It remains to be seen which legislative path the minister will choose. The parliamentarians of the “common base” have in any case taken the initiative. Tuesday October 29, a bill was submitted to the office of the National Assembly, carried by Constance Le Grip, the deputy for Hauts-de-Seine from the Ensemble pour la République group, and supported in particular by the former minister Aurore Bank.
In this text, we can read the determination of the deputies of the Macronist camp. The first article of the bill aims to “explicitly prohibit the wearing of signs or outfits ostensibly demonstrating religious affiliation by licensees of French sports federations during sports competitions leading to the award of international, national, regional or departmental titles”.