Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., a dozen "Hijabeuses", a group of footballers who campaign for the right to wear the veil during sports competitions, gathered on a lawn located in front of the esplanade des Invalides.
"Football for all", "Let us play": banners deployed, the young players improvise, in a good-natured atmosphere, a match in the dark, lit by flashes of telephones and projectors of light.
Several members of the "Les Hijabeuses" collective, accompanied by activists from the Citizen Alliance association, facing the Esplanade des Invalides, where the demonstration was to take place, Wednesday February 9, 2022. © Soraya Boubaya
An hour earlier, the administrative court had suspended the prefectural decree prohibiting the gathering of "Hijabeuses", scheduled for the same day at 4:30 p.m., on the Esplanade des Invalides, near the National Assembly.
The young women had planned to demonstrate against an amendment prohibiting "the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols" during sporting events, and which was discussed this Wednesday by the deputies.
Ten days earlier, the "Hijabeuses" had already organized a football match in the Luxembourg garden, at the foot of the Senate, a few days after the vote on the amendment carried by the senators Les Républicains (LR), adopted by 160 votes for and 143 against.
When the decision of the administrative court was announced, the players wanted to meet to celebrate what they consider to be their victory.
"We wanted to come for the symbolism. When we learned at 5:45 p.m. that the ban on the Prefecture of Police was suspended, we said to ourselves that we were going to come here because we won", explains Anna Agueb-Porterie , an activist in charge of organizing the community of inhabitants at the local level within the association Alliance Citoyenne, which fights alongside the "Hijabeuses".
NEWS FLASH 🚨 📍
Esplanade des Invalides #LetUsPlay #LaissezNousPlay #FootballForAll #SportForAll pic.twitter.com/39Y4cgKp1t
- The Hijabeuses (@leshijabeuses) February 9, 2022
"Political Islam"
Twenty-four hours earlier, the Paris police headquarters, estimated: "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 " .
She also referred to a "significant divide within society between supporters of the affirmation of political Islam, which advocates the wearing of the veil by women, and supporters of the values of equality between women and men" and put forward the "current electoral context", two months before the presidential election.
The Prefect of Police issues an order prohibiting a demonstration likely to create disturbances to public order.
🔵 Check out our press release ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/z5f2ESrzv1
– Prefecture of Police (@prefpolice) February 8, 2022
For the collective, which claims nearly a hundred members throughout France, these "scandalous" arguments "are based on nothing but racist prejudices and deliberately maintained political confusion".
The activists welcomed the decision of the administrative court which considered on Wednesday that the prefectural decree constituted "a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the fundamental freedom of the right to demonstrate", condemning it to pay a fine of 1,000 euros to the association. "Les Hijabeuses" and the League of Human Rights (LDH).
political storm
A divisive subject, the amendment which is being debated in both chambers of parliament has also aroused many reactions within the political class.
Deputy LR Eric Ciotti, adviser to Valérie Pécresse, castigated Wednesday a "submission" to the Islamism of the majority and the executive, who refuse to include in the law the ban on the veil in sports competitions.
For his part, Régis Juanico (PS) spoke out against the words of the elected representative of the Alpes-Maritimes affirming that sport is "carrying integration, republican fraternity, not hatred or division".
Former minister Marie-George Buffet (PCF) called for "trust" so that "secularism, neutrality are at the heart of our sports practices".
Asked about hijabeuses, the Minister Delegate for Gender Equality, Elisabeth Moreno, estimated Thursday that women "have the right to wear the Islamic veil to play" on a football field.
"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," added the minister on LCI.
The FFF in sight
This new twist does not make footballers forget the fight that has animated the collective since 2020: obtaining the repeal of article 1 of the French Football Federation (FFF), which prohibits "any wearing of a sign or outfit ostensibly showing a belonging political, philosophical, religious or union".
A ban that senators want to extend to all federations.
In November 2021, the collective had seized the Council of State, targeting Article 1 of the FFF regulations.
"Our objective is to fight against the exclusion and prohibition of women who wear the veil in sports competitions. Today I think that we do not have to have to choose between wearing our veil and playing sports. we have to go back to the law, to what freedom of conscience, secularism says, and as soon as we realize that the law is on our side, we realize that we are legitimate, "says Inès, 21, general secretary of the association of "Hijabeuses".
"What we are asking today is that the FFF modify its rules and allow all women to be able to express themselves, enjoy their passion and participate in competitions without having the ball in their stomachs or the stress of ask 'am I going to be able to play today or not?'", continues the young woman.
Sports supports
Launched in 2020, the movement organizes matches, sit-ins, and actions via social networks, to challenge the FFF which, unlike FIFA, refuses access to footballers who wear the veil to official sports competitions.
Present this Wednesday evening, Zamya, trainee within Citizen Alliance for six months, and member of the committee of "Hijabeuses", came to support the collective.
"I love football, and when I saw them play, I said to myself that it was not possible that they could not participate in competitions just because they wear a veil. They have a talent for crazy. We have Mbappé, Ronaldinho, I'm not even abusing it (laughs). So there, I'm relieved. The fight continues. Our objective remains that the FFF authorize the wearing of the veil in competition. Next step, the FFF! "
If they were deprived of their event, they obtained the support of around fifty personalities from the world of sport – Lilian Thuram, Audrey Tcheuméo or Candice Prévost – who signed a column entitled “Let the hijabeuses play!”, published in Liberation.
The two chambers having been unable to agree, the text must go through the Senate on February 16, before returning to the Assembly for final adoption on February 24.
MPs will have the last word.
The summary of the
France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 app
google-play-badge_FR