Elisabeth Moreno spoke on LCI, Thursday, February 10, about the collective of “Hijabeuses”, which seized the Council of State in November 2021. Their desire is to obtain the repeal of article 1 of the regulation of the French Football Federation (FFF), which prohibits “any wearing of a sign or outfit ostensibly manifesting a political, philosophical, religious or trade union affiliation”.
The 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 about the “hijabeuses”, a collective which campaigns for this right in competition.
“The law says that these young girls can wear the veil and play football. On the football fields today, it is not forbidden to wear the veil. I want the law to be respected”said the minister on LCI, while the French Football Federation (FFF) prohibits the wearing of religious symbols in competition.
If they want to play football while veiled, how is that impossible?
“If they want to play football while veiled, how is that impossible? Very often, girls are unable to leave their homes to do things, the famous house arrest”she said, supporting “the possibility for girls to play sports”.
In the evening, however, the minister made it clear to AFP that she believed that her remarks were “instrumentalised”emphasizing not believing “that the wearing of the veil favors the emancipation of women”. “I in no way defend the existence of sports associations which would explicitly assume to make wearing the veil a condition of membership and a form of identity claim”she said.
The senators adopted on January 19, against the advice of the government, an amendment proposed by the LR group prohibiting “the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols” 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 An amendment repealed by the Assembly where LREM has a majority.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 which had banned a demonstration the same day by “hijabeuses” near the Palais-Bourbon. Asked about Cnews, the delegate president of the LREM group in the National Assembly Aurore Bergé explained that she had voted against the repeal of the amendment “to say that there should be no proselytism, neither political nor religious, in sport”.
In no way the hijab is a factor of emancipation of women.
She rented “courageous sports federations” Who “made a decision in their bylaws saying they didn’t want any religious proselytizing”. “For me the question is not just the question of the hijab: it is that on a sports field, religion has nothing to do there, has no place”insisted the deputy.
“In no way the hijab is a factor of emancipation of women. Those who want to make believe it are tartuffes”she said, emphasizing that in France, “secular, universalist and democratic country, no woman is prevented from playing sports, playing football”.