(AP) Amnesty International is urging French lawmakers to reject a bill this week that would ban headscarves in all sporting competitions.
The bill is backed by right-wing senators and will be debated from Tuesday in the upper house of the French parliament. Its aim is to ban all “ostensibly religious” clothing and symbols during competitions. Amnesty International says the move would be discriminatory.
The vote is likely to refuel the lingering debate on secularism — still volatile more than a century after the 1905 law on separation of church and state that established it as a principle of the French Republic.
Until now, sporting federations have been free to decide whether or not to allow headscarves, with two of the country’s most powerful sports, soccer and rugby, opting to ban them.
