France Reminds The World It Hates Women
The French ban on Muslim Olympians from wearing the hijab is not a secular value—its fascist oppression—and a symptom of France's systemic abuse of women
Imagine a country that decides for women how they are allowed to dress, and punishes those women who refuse with fines, bans on education, and denial of basic access to even play sports. I’m talking of course, about France.
As world class athletes gear up this week for the 2024 Paris Olympics, one group of women is banned from competing—Muslim Olympians who wear the hijab. But this ban goes far beyond fascist opposition against Muslim women, and reveals the ugly underbelly of French hatred towards women and girls in general. The receipts I present below paint a daunting picture of the work needed for meaningful reform.
Let’s Address This.
The IOC, the World Economic Forum, and France itself are touting the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as the “Gender Equal Olympics” because women will represent 50% of participants. Yet, their declarations come with a glaring asterisk. You see, Muslim women who wear the hijab are deemed incompatible with French secular values and are therefore excluded from competition. France’s version of women’s empowerment is not about ensuring women can dress as they choose, but about dictating how women should dress according to how the French government chooses.
Consider, Diaba Konaté, named NCAA college basketball Big West conference's best defensive player of the year and is a breakout star. But because she wears the hijab, France has banned her from Olympic competition. This exclusion extends beyond Muslim women and reveals the broader issue of misogyny within French society.
Konaté is not alone. France insists on infusing itself in every aspect of women’s lives, particularly those of Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab. This July France banned a soccer player from wearing her hijab on the field. France additionally banned individual girls from choose to wear the abaya in a state run school, stating that attire should stay in the mosque (while also shutting down dozens of mosques). In swimming pools, France fined a woman $575 for swimming in a burkini, despite her having rented the pool for private use. The pool had to be "cleaned" afterward—an action reminiscent of how white supremacists “cleaned” pools in the 1950s after Black people swam in them. And even when hypocrisy slaps France in the face, they pretend to see nothing. Who can forget that France mandated masks as part of its COVID19 protocols, yet maintained its ban on burqas. And not content with oppressing women within its own borders, France forced cancellation of a European campaign that celebrates Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab. This isn’t just policy; it’s exported extremism and racism in action. And yes, it gets still worse in France for women and girls.
While banning the hijab, claiming it was "oppressive to women,” French courts ruled that a group of firefighters who repeatedly raped a 13-year-old girl cannot be charged with rape—arguing a 13-year-old somehow gave consent. After mass outrage, France finally passed age of consent laws, arriving at 15, not 18. Therefore, to draw a fine point on the absurdity here, the legal age of sexual consent in France is 15, but the legal age for dressing oneself in France is 18. And yes it gets still worse. France’s culture of misogyny and child abuse extend beyond racism against Muslims. The country has a significant problem with sexual abuse and pedophilia, sanctioned by the church and silently approved by politicians.
For example, a shocking recent report documents that over 330,000 children have been sexually abused by French clergy and pedophiles in France’s churches since 1950. Yet, France has not shut down one church, nor has a single clergy person faced prosecution for these horrific crimes. Meanwhile, France has recently shut down 30 mosques with little explanation, and banned the hijab in schools and workplaces, all in the name of "secular values." This selective enforcement reveals a troubling double standard. To be sure, this is not an attack on Christianity or Christians, but a condemnation of the French government’s hypocrisy and failure to protect children while demonizing an already marginalized Muslim minority. Perhaps instead of dictating women’s attire, French courts should focus on holding abusers accountable?
Even as adults, French women are not free from sexual harassment and abuse. In a thorough survey, a horrifying 100% of Parisian women reported suffering sexual harassment from French men. But maybe instead of simply complaining about this oppression, French Muslim women should get engaged in civil service, get elected, and help change these oppressive laws, right? That sounds great in theory, until you see just how embedded this French fascism has become. Recently, French President Macron's ruling party dropped candidate Sara Zemmahi because "her hijab violates secularism." Zemmahi did everything right, activated her supporters, got on the ballot, and ran on a platform of change and inclusion—and the so-called left in France shut her down. This is both absurd and bigoted. A secular government does not mean the elimination of faith—it means equal justice for all, regardless of faith or no faith.
Finally, consider this irony: France has banned Muslim women from wearing the hijab and burqa because such attire is seen as antithetical to liberty. Yet, it was France who gifted to the United States the Statue of Liberty—a statue of a woman donning a burqa and hijab, designed after an Egyptian Muslim woman. France’s double standards and hypocrisy are glaring and undeniable.
Here’s the bottom line. Women should not have to remove their hijab to exist freely in France, just as they should not have to wear a hijab to exist freely in Iran. Women deserve freedom of bodily autonomy, period. Hardline men need to check themselves instead. Indeed, the real problem is not women or the hijab, but rather the insecure men who feel the need to exert control over women through oppressive policies.
As the world watches the 2024 Summer Olympics, it is crucial to recognize and call out this hypocrisy and misogyny in France’s policies. Only by addressing these injustices can we hope to rectify them. If France is serious about reform, it must protect true freedom of religion for all residents, including Muslim women, and ensure women in France have complete rights and bodily autonomy. Such an act would make the 2024 Paris Olympics actually worthy of the title, “Gender Equal Olympics.”
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It's always seemed ironic to me that a measure ostensibly designed to protect women's freedom is actually so harmful and detrimental to many women's lives, and does absolutely nothing to address systemic sexism. Thoroughly depressing and unfortunately typical of the insidiously white male supremacist centrism.
Great reporting. I would not have known any of this.