The Paris police headquarters announced on Tuesday evening to ban the demonstration scheduled for Wednesday on the Esplanade des Invalides at the call of the “Hijabeuses”, a group of footballers who campaign for the right to wear the veil during sports competitions. “It is to be feared that this demonstration will attract, in addition to the people who support it, people hostile to the cause defended and likely to do battle with the first”, argues the police headquarters in a press release. The ban on the rally is justified “both for the safety of the demonstrators themselves and for the maintenance of public order”, adds the prefecture.
The young women had given “an appointment at 4.30 p.m. for the return match on the Esplanade des Invalides, right next to the National Assembly”, according to their account. Twitter. On the program, “football matches with the Hijabeuses, the allies and the elected officials + speeches”, they had announced. They had already invited themselves briefly on January 26 in the Luxembourg garden, at the foot of the Senate, to exchange a few passes with a banner “Football for all”, before being invited to leave by the gendarmes. This collective, created in May 2020, stands up against the French Football Federation (FFF) which prohibits them from playing veiled in competition.
A new reading is scheduled for Wednesday
This new call to demonstrate by “Hijabeuses” coincides with the return to the Palais Bourbon of a LREM bill on sport which sees deputies and senators oppose on the question of the ban on wearing the veil in competition.
The senators had voted on January 19 an amendment prohibiting the wearing of “conspicuous religious symbols” during a sports competition, immediately erased by the deputies. The two chambers having been unable to agree on a common text, a new reading is scheduled for Wednesday in the Assembly.
The debates must then go back to the Senate on February 16 before the deputies give their last word.