“If the signatories persist, no more one euro! », assured AFP at the beginning of October the vice-president of the Île-de-France region in charge of sports, Patrick Karam, after receiving the president of the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) Jean-Pierre Suitat to discuss the question of wearing the hijab. Because, while the basketball federation aligned itself with the football federation at the start of the year and toughened its attitude towards veiled women on the pitches, the debate continues to agitate the world of amateur sport.
A letter signed by 69 basketball clubs, mainly from the Ile-de-France region (out of the 3,800 counted in France), reached the FFBB a month ago, requesting the repeal of the article in the Fédé regulations which prohibits the wearing of ” with political and religious connotations”, and thus prevents players wearing the hijab from participating in national and amateur competitions.
Opposed to this repeal, the presidency of the Federation requested the support of the Île-de-France region which promised to cut subsidies to Ile-de-France clubs which do not respect this point of regulation. Why does the debate cause such tensions? Could it contaminate other sports and create divisions within the authorities?
The case of the football federation before the Council of State
It must be said that the action of the collective of female footballers Les Hijabeuses made noise in June. They asked to be able to play veiled even though the regulations of the French Football Federation are explicit on this subject. The Council of State also ruled in favor of the body.
The decision of France’s highest administrative court says that each French federation has the right to authorize or prohibit the wearing of the hijab on its grounds. They are responsible for a public service, are in some way delegates of a public service, therefore have the right to regulate in relation to the players”, analyzes Anne Andréa Vilerio, lawyer in civil liberties and sports law, and moreover , ambassador for Femi’x Sport, an association which works for women in sport. “We’re only talking about amateur sport,” she adds.
“Players licensed in clubs are considered simple users of the public service, who benefit from the service of organizing competitions provided by a sports federation. They therefore benefit in principle from religious freedom. But public service managers, in this case the delegated federations, can limit it by prohibiting in particular the wearing of the veil in order to ensure the smooth running of matches,” explains Mathieu Maisonneuve, professor of law at Aix-en-Provence University. Marseille, specializing in sports law. Particularly vague wording. Why until recently and despite an already existing article in the regulations, did the French Basketball Federation let veiled players on its courts? Can we imagine that a risk of tensions off the field is now proven? “Since in its judgment of June 29, adds Mathieu Maisonneuve, the Council of State considers that the ban on the hijab on football fields was necessary to prevent any clash or confrontation unrelated to sport.”
Basketball at the center of the debates
“We found ourselves last season, overnight, with a “now, that’s how it is” without prevention or pedagogy upstream,” laments Sébastien Marie-Sainte, president of the Aubervilliers basketball club, who received in 2022-2023, four call-ups out of the 22 matches played by one of its teams. “Of the eighteen others, the referees considered that certain players who wore headgear, since that is how the regulations designate it, did not disrupt the smooth running of the match. We didn’t put religion in sport.” He assures that for this season, the management has explained to the players concerned why they can no longer play in official competitions, and ensures that his club respects the regulations.
If he assures for his part that in his Seine-Saint-Denis club, “three or four players per team are affected by this strict ban”, neither the FFBB nor the Île-de-France region have communicated estimate on the number of female basketball players concerned. “We are not talking about an epiphenomenon but about a reality,” assures the president of the Aubervilliers club, at least in the big cities.
For Béatrice Barbusse, deputy vice-president of the French Handball Federation (FFHB) and author of Sexism in sport (ed. Anamosa, 2022), “it is once again a majority of men who will decide for women. It’s like sending these women home. It’s a real setback for them.”
The French volleyball federation has just clarified the ban
Sébastien Marie-Sainte, who works to organize friendly tournaments and to continue to welcome young veiled girls and women to training, “with specific sports headgear to avoid any hygiene or safety problems”, hopes that the fedé will change this rule 9.3 and at least open a debate which has never been open.
“The Île-de-France basketball league discussed the subject during the day for women’s rights but it was really heated. And then, it’s the players who we have to let speak.” “Handball allows it,” notes Anne Andréa Vilerio. But for how much longer? Joined on Friday, Béatrice Barbusse confided to 20 minutes that some letters of discontent had reached them. “I fear that we are aligning ourselves with other team sports in France.”
Football, basketball and now volleyball, which during its general assembly on October 28, clarified the preamble to its statutes relating to the “principles of secularism and neutrality”. An adjustment to the regulations which specifies that “any wearing of signs or outfits ostensibly demonstrating political, philosophical, religious or union affiliation” is prohibited during “competitions or events organized by the FFvolley”. The Rugby Federation, in the midst of organizing the World Cup in France, did not respond to our requests.
A decision that requires political correctness for the members of the French team?
“Perhaps these petitions from basketball clubs will have an influence,” says Anne Andréa Vilerio, optimistically, “since it is in fact only a question of modifying a point of the regulations within a federation. And then, the international basketball federation (Fiba) has authorized the wearing of the hijab since 2017 and the IOC leaves the field open to each international federation.” There will also be veiled sportswomen at the Paris Olympics next year. Not the French.
As Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra recently recalled, sportswomen selected for the French team will not be able to wear the veil during the Games, a proscription resulting from the decision of the Council of State of June 29. “It is an application of the principle of secularism of the Republic, the same rule as for public service agents. Athletes are assimilated into it, recalls Mathieu Maisonneuve. Athletes from the French teams could thus by extension be subject to an obligation of reserve outside their function. We could therefore imagine, theoretically at least, that this decision could limit their speaking out on social networks for example.” Muzzled but not veiled, quite a program.