Activists and sports fans have criticised France's decision to ban French women from competing in hijab at the Olympics set to kick off in Paris next week.
The decision to ban French athletes from wearing a headscarf during the competition was announced in September and was quickly denounced by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said no one should dictate what women should or should not wear.
However, the debate has reignited online with the games just days away, with many people slamming the decision and saying that France should not discriminate against anyone.
"Where are all the feminists? France bans Muslim women from wearing hijab in the Olympics. Europe is slowly becoming the very thing they claim to despise. ‘Women should choose what they want to wear’ but just not Muslim women in hijab right," one social media user wrote on X.
Some denounced France as a "hypocrite country", while others called for a ban of the competition.
"Banning hijabs? Let us not forget that France's government is racist during the Paris Olympics. With the current affairs, it’s clear what they side with. It’s disgusting, we shouldn’t even be having the Olympics until Gaza is freed," one person wrote on X.
Others cited the Olympic Charter which states: "The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."
The backlash comes after Amnesty International said this week that the ban on French women in hijab represents discriminatory double standards.
"The ban on French women athletes who wear headscarves from competing at the Olympic Games breaches international human rights laws and exposes the discriminatory hypocrisy of the International Olympic Committee," the statement said.
"Banning French athletes from competing with sports hijabs at the Olympic and Paralympic Games makes a mockery of claims that Paris 2024 is the first Gender Equal Olympics and lays bare the racist gender discrimination that underpins access to sport in France," Anna Blus, Amnesty International’s Women’s Rights Researcher in Europe said.
The rights group added that the decision has a devastating impact on the participation of women in sports and makes the games inaccessible.
Several athletes and sports players spoke to Amnesty International about the decision ahead of the competition.
Helene Ba, a basketball player, called it a "clear violation of the Olympic charter" and said the Olympics was going to be a "shameful moment for France."
Another woman told Amnesty that the decision was “shameful…to block dreams just because of a piece of fabric."
The Olympics has also come under fire in recent weeks as activists called for a boycott of the event over Israel’s war on Gaza and the killing of athletes in the besieged enclave.
Estimates from activists in Gaza state that around 350 sports players and athletes have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on the enclave on 7 October. The figure includes at least 250 footballers.