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Paris (AFP) – Women “have the right to wear the Islamic veil to play” on a football field, said Thursday the minister delegate for Gender Equality, Elisabeth Moreno, when asked regarding the “hijabeuses”, a collective that campaigns for this right in competition.
“The law says that these young girls can wear the veil and play football. On football fields today it is not forbidden to wear the veil. I want us to respect the law,” the minister said on LCI, while the French Football Federation (FFF) prohibits the wearing of religious signs in competition.
“If they want to play football while being veiled, how is it impossible? (…) Very often girls have the impossibility to get out of their homes to do things, the famous house arrest,” she said, supporting “the opportunity for girls to play sports”.
A collective, the “Hijabeuses”, appealed to the Council of State in November 2021 to obtain the repeal of article 1 of the regulations of the French Football Federation (FFF), which prohibits “any sign or outfit ostensibly manifesting a political, philosophical, religious or trade union membership”.
The senators adopted on January 19, once morest the advice of the government, an amendment proposed by the LR group prohibiting “the wearing of ostensible religious signs” during “sporting events and sports competitions organized by sports federations”. An amendment repealed by the Assembly where LREM has a majority.
The administrative court on Wednesday suspended a prefectural decree that had banned a demonstration on the same day of the “hijabeuses” near the Palais-Bourbon.
More generally, Ms. Moreno felt on LCI that “in the public space, women can dress as they wish” and that “there are women who say +I wear the veil by choice+”.
“My battle is to protect those who are forced to wear the veil,” she said.
“If parents need to be punished, why not? But only those who are forced to do so,” she said, when asked regarding the possibility of imposing deterrent fines for parents of girls under the age of fifteen who wear the veil in public space.
“Women should be able to choose to dress the way they want,” Moreno said.
© 2022 AFP
