“It’s unprofessional, it’s dirty and it’s wild.” Kenza Bel Kenadil heard these words for the first time in a professional context when she was only 17 years old, after years of being the target of all kinds of derogatory comments about her hairstyle - curly hair styled in afro - from his school friends. 

Later, when she takes up her position as a hostess in a hotel in the south of France, the young woman is addressed by the director: "Either you go home and change your hairstyle, or You’re not coming to work.”

This type of discrimination, based on the cut, texture, color or length of the hair, is at the heart of the bill tabled by the deputy (LIOT) of Guadeloupe, Olivier Serva, which will be debated on Thursday March 28 , in the National Assembly. Its objective: to add hair discrimination to the list of discrimination punishable by criminal sanctions. A fight that Kenza Bel Kenadil, now 26 years old, is now publicly fighting, who has been using social networks for several years to fight against hair discrimination through videos, some of which have accumulated several million views.

At the time, faced with the threat from her boss, she finally returned home, "in tears", to flatten her hair and tie it in a bun, she tells France 24. "I didn't understand why my hair had an impact on my seriousness and my hiring.”

To prevent such experiences from happening again, Olivier Serva suggests adding to discrimination based on physical appearance the specific criterion of hair discrimination.

"It's historic, it's the first country in the world which - at the national level - recognizes hair discrimination as real discrimination", reacted the Guadeloupean MP on March 18, after the approval of the text by the Law Commission, whose function is to prepare the legislative debate in public session.

✅ Proposed law on #HairDiscrimination adopted today in the law committee!



🟢🎤@OlivierServa shares his feelings with us just after the release.



Next meeting: examination in session ➡️ MARCH 28 to confirm this progress. #DirectAN @AN_ComLois #LIOT pic.twitter.com/JZGCjgIiC6

— LIOT Group (@GroupeLIOT_An) March 20, 2024

The only equivalent exists in the United States where the “CROWN Act” (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) of 2022 prohibits discrimination based on hair in the workplace and at school. Adopted in 24 states and around thirty cities, it does not apply at the federal level.

In the United Kingdom, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published guidelines in 2022 to prevent hair discrimination in British schools, estimating that "Afro" cuts do not should not be prohibited.

An existing legal arsenal, but not explicit

As for France, the explanatory memorandum of the proposed law specifies that "people who are victims of discrimination linked to the texture of their hair, their color or their hair style are deprived of a precise legal framework". A position that certain deputies, notably from the MoDem, do not agree with, who believe that French law already has a legal arsenal making it possible to fight against discrimination based on physical criteria.

“This is a typical example of a bad idea: there is no legal vacuum,” Mr. Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specializing in labor law, told AFP. The Labor Code already provides that “physical appearance is a cause of discrimination” even if the law “does not explicitly provide for hair discrimination,” he says.

In the event of discrimination "because of hair, lack of hair, color, length or appearance, I could link it to already existing texts", says Me Rocheblave.

The Penal Code, in its article 225-1, sets out a list of 25 discrimination criteria prohibited by law. But these criteria, according to the defenders of the bill, do not go far enough.

“If this law was enough, we would not be refused employment because of [our hair], we would not be subject to comments from colleagues, and the Air France steward would not have gone to the Court of Cassation” , reacts Kenza Bel Kenadil, referring to this member of the flight crew forced to wear a wig to hide her braids. In 2022, he managed to have the airline convicted of discrimination after ten years of proceedings, but on the basis of discrimination linked to sex, Air France regulations authorizing the wearing of braids by female employees.

Hair cut, color, length or texture

While article 225-1 provides that “constitutes discrimination any distinction made between natural persons on the basis of their origin, their sex, their family situation, their pregnancy, their physical appearance (... )", Olivier Serva intends to provide "necessary legal clarification", by inserting the words: "in particular the cut, color, length or texture of their hair". A clarification which will also have to be added to the provisions of the General Civil Service Code and the Labor Code dealing with discrimination.

According to a study carried out in 2023 by Dove and LinkedIn in the United States (where ethnic statistics are authorized, unlike France), two thirds of women of Afro-descendants said they changed their hairstyle before a job interview, their hair being “2.5 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional”.

Findings which do not only concern one ethnic community, according to the presentation text of the bill. It is based on a British study which, in 2009, revealed that one in three blondes colored their hair in order to increase their chances of having a career and "looking more intelligent" in a professional environment.

In an interview with France Info last April, the MP affirmed that this hair discrimination also affects bald men. “A study shows that they have 30% less chance of being able to progress in their company,” Olivier Serva explained at the time.

A public health problem.

While the deputies of the Republicans and the National Rally condemn the importation of a "victim logic into French law", Kenza Bel Kenadil says she understands that we can "question ourselves about something of which we have not been victim". On the other hand, she adds, "for me, even if a single person suffers from discrimination, and whatever this discrimination is, they must be protected."

In a video posted on her social networks, the influencer sports several curly hairstyles, ensuring for each of them that it is "professional", and accompanying the content with a text specifying: "My appearance does not justify my skills" .

In the comments under the publication, the testimonies multiply: "I was told, 'if you go to a client meeting, you tie your hair up because otherwise, we'll only see you'; “Young nursing student, adding braids, I was asked if it was clean”; “I was told if I go to an interview that I have to straighten my hair”; “I have locks that I maintain with love. I eat up all the discrimination.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kenza Bel kenadil (@kenzablkn)

Among other testimonies that have marked Kenza Bel Kenadil outside of this publication, she relates: a person with blond hair who was refused a position because her hair color was "not serious enough", or else a receptionist who recorded an exchange where her employer insults her: "At the interview, they told you 'hair down or hair tied up but well done'. What is this thing? It looks like a lion's mane" .

In addition to a dimension relating to self-esteem and personal confidence, the explanatory memorandum of the proposed law also mentions a significant health dimension, particularly with regard to the fate of textured hair (curly, curly and frizzy). ).

“A person unable to wear their natural hair in a professional or school environment will be forced either to hide their hair or transform it using chemicals,” states the text. Solutions far from being harmless, tight hairstyles can ultimately cause traction alopecia (traumatic hair loss, by excessive tension on the hair), and products used for straightening hair can , cause burns. 

In 2022, a study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) also revealed a correlation between the use of relaxers and the appearance of uterine cancers, the risk of seeing a cancer of this type being greater in women. women using these hair products (4.05%) than those who do not use them (1.64%).

“This shows that the subject must be taken seriously enough,” underlines Kenza Bel Kenadil. “I'm willing to hear that there's something more serious, but if we start from that observation, we'll never move forward on anything.”

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