(CNN) The United Nations’ human rights office has criticized the French government for banning French athletes from wearing the hijab at the Paris Olympics next year.
“No one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear, or not wear,” said Maria Hurtado, spokeswoman for the UN high commissioner for human rights, on Tuesday.
“In general, according to the committee on elimination of discrimination against women, any state party of the convention, in this case France, has an obligation to take all the appropriate measures to modify any social or cultural patterns which are based on the idea of inferiority or superiority of either sexes,” Hurtado added.
