It will not only impact individuals like Mellah, or the aspiring tennis players hoping to reach the French Open. For a nation that is set to host the 2024 Olympics, the audacity of seeking to exclude a group of women in this way is shocking. How can Paris open its doors to the best of the world’s sporting talent yet actively reject women for what they choose to wear?
At previous Games, Muslim sportswomen such as American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who won bronze at Rio 2016, and Feryal Abdelaziz, who won Egypt’s first gold medal in Tokyo, lit up the competition. But with this rule, the influence of hijab-wearing Muslim sportswomen is set to be erased for Paris 2024. The International Olympic Committee has so far failed to comment on how this change in legislation could impact athletes, an insult to the ethos the Games promotes.
As a Muslim woman I know the power of sport, and have seen it with the young people I have worked with. But when legislation like this is approved, with no outcry or opposition, it feels like we can never win.
When Muslim women are silent, we are deemed to be victims of our faith, shackled by our hijabs and oppressed. Yet when we speak or take ownership of our choices, we are perceived as if we are enforcing Islam onto the world, or told we do not belong. A woman’s strength and her ability to play are not minimised by the layers she chooses to wear.
