Australian boxer Tina Rahimi has criticised France’s hijab ban for its female athletes at the Olympics, saying “no one should be excluded” from sport because of how they dress.
Rahimi, who is the first Muslim woman to compete as a boxer in the Olympics for Australia, chooses to wear and compete in a hijab as an expression of her religion.
In a post on Instagram, Rahimi wrote: “Women have the right to choose how they want to dress. WITH or WITHOUT hijab. I CHOOSE to wear the hijab as apart of my religion and I am PROUD to do so.”
“You shouldn’t have to choose between your beliefs/religion or your sport. This is what the French athletes are forced to do. (The hijab ban only affects French athletes)
“No matter how you look or dress, what your ethnicity is or what religion you follow. We all come together to achieve that one dream. To compete and to win. No one should be excluded. Discrimination is not welcome in sport, specifically in the Olympics and what it stands for.”
Her comments relate to France’s ban on its own female athletes from wearing the hijab or any headscarf while competing in the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris. The decision has sparked outrage from human rights groups who say it is a form of “racist gender discrimination”.
France’s ban on the hijab applies only to its national athletes, not to visiting competitors from other countries.
In September, French Sport Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera announced that French athletes would not be permitted to wear the hijab or any other religious headwear during the Paris Games. She said it was to respect the principles of secularism. Similar bans are in place in domestic sporting competitions across France.
“Banning French athletes from competing with sports hijabs at the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first Gender Equal Olympics and lays bare the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France,” Amnesty International’s Anna Błuś said recently.
“Discriminatory rules policing what women wear are a violation of Muslim women’s and girls’ human rights and have a devastating impact on their participation in sport, blocking efforts to make sports more inclusive and more accessible.”
French sprinter Sounkamba Sylla was forced to swap her headscarf for a cap in order to participate in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics over the weekend.
“You are selected for the Olympics, organized in your country, but you can’t participate in the opening ceremony because you wear a headscarf,” she wrote on her Instagram prior to the Opening Ceremony.