(AP) French sprinter Sounkamba Sylla says she has been barred from Friday’s opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics because she wears a hijab, and the French Olympic Committee said it is working with her to find a solution that adheres to the team’s secular requirements for athletes.
Sylla, a 26-year-old member of France’s 400-meter women’s and mixed relay teams, shared her frustration on Instagram on Sunday.
“You are selected for the Olympics, organized in your country, but you can’t participate in the opening ceremony because you wear a headscarf,” she wrote.
France enforces a strict principle of “laïcité,” loosely translated as “secularism.”
