As the Women’s World Cup gets rolling this week in Australia and New Zealand, Morocco’s Nouhaila Benzina is set to make history. Not only is it her country’s first time qualifying for the competition, but the 25-year-old defender is expected to become the first player to compete on this stage while wearing a hijab.
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If this tournament was being held in France, which staged the previous Women’s World Cup four years ago, however, she wouldn’t be able to do that.
A hijab is a headcover that covers a woman’s hair, worn by those who are of the Muslim faith. Three weeks ago, a court in France ruled in favour of the French Football Federation’s (FFF) decision to ban players who choose to wear the Islamic headscarf during matches.
The FFF isn’t the first sporting association to bar the hijab. World basketball’s governing body FIBA had a policy that did not permit any headgear — which included coverings such as hijabs and also the yarmulke, a skullcap worn by Orthodox Jewish men — but did away with it in 2017.
France has laws designed to protect its status as a secular country — known constitutionally as “laïcité” — but it is a sensitive issue that is viewed by some as a way to guarantee the religious neutrality of the state but by others as impinging on religious rights.
The FFF’s rule against the hijab specifically states any sign or clothing clearly showing political, philosophical, religious or union affiliation during play is deemed inappropriate. French far-right politicians came out in support of the ban, including Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party.
“I feel that we have taken 10 steps back in our fight to bring equality to football,” says Iqra Ismail, who is a coach with west London non-League club Hilltop Women FC and an advocate for women’s football and inclusivity in the game in the UK. “I’ve personally spent so long in my journey trying to normalise Muslim women’s participation in the sport and the FFF are single-handedly reversing that work.
“Off the back of this ban, Muslim women who play football, or at least have an interest in it, will now feel that they are not welcome in this beautiful game. We have been made to feel less than our non-Muslim counterparts.
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“I am Muslim before anything else in this world and my identity is intersectional. I am Muslim first, but I am also a footballer, and these two aspects should be able to coexist within my life.”
In France’s 2020 census, 10 per cent of the population identified as Muslim, which means the country has the biggest Muslim population in all of Europe. Due to its colonial past, there is a large North African community across France as well as a West African community, predominantly from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal and Mali.
This is evident in the make-up of the French men’s and women’s national football teams. France’s squad for this Women’s World Cup includes several Muslim players with ties to these former colonial nations, and it was a similar story with their men’s squads that won the 1998 and 2018 World Cups.
Morocco begin their World Cup against Germany tomorrow (Monday) in the Australian city of Melbourne before further group games that see them face South Korea and Colombia.
Assile Toufaily, a Lebanese sports-sociology PhD candidate based in France and host of The Super Subs podcast, feels the French government is guilty of hypocrisy.
“France is one of the European countries with the biggest Muslim communities, whether they’re immigrants or born in France,” Toufaily says. “(The French) wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in the year 1789, and they never hesitate in reminding people about this. But how can you talk about this respect of human rights when you ban humans from playing football because of a piece of cloth on their head? Not allowing hijabis (those who wear headscarves) to play football means not giving them the freedom that is theirs.”
This is not the year’s first controversy around Muslims in French football.
In March, Eric Borghini, president of the FFF’s federal referees’ commission, told news service AFP: “It has been brought to the attention of the federation that matches have been interrupted due to the breaking of the Ramadan fast. These interruptions do not respect the provisions in the rules. There is a time for everything: a time to play sports and a time to practise one’s religion.”
During last season, the FFF continuously reminded referees not to pause matches to allow players observing their fasts to have a quick drink at sunset, as happens in nearby European countries such as England and the Netherlands, where play is stopped for up to one minute.
The hijab ban comes at a time of increased tensions among migrant communities in France, after Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old French youth of North African descent, was shot dead by police in Paris in late June, leading to riots and unrest across the country in protest over police brutality.
“So far, we have not witnessed the expected reaction (regarding the hijab ban),” Toufaily says. “People are busy with the murder of Nahel. I believe it is the role of the media and associations to shed light on this, especially during the Women’s World Cup.”
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With Morocco — and Benzina — participating in their first Women’s World Cup after failing to qualify for the previous six, and with several other squads at the tournament featuring multiple women of Muslim faith, the issue of players wearing hijabs during matches will once again come to the fore.
The fight for inclusion in football across France is being led by multiple groups, including Les Hijabeuses, made up of young hijabi football players based in the country, as well as Les Degommeuses and Les Debuteuses.
“The role played by these associations is extremely important,” Toufaily says. “They’re non-institutionalised, which means that the French federation has no control over them. They can use their platforms to denounce this ban, and this is what they did. I am convinced that eventually the ban will be removed, unless the extreme-right wins the elections in 2027.”
Like FIBA, football’s global governing body FIFA barred all headgear for players in 2007, however that ban was eventually lifted seven years later. The FFF is currently the only federation that does not allow female players in its country to compete wearing the hijab.
Ismail believes more people in the public eye should stand against the decision.
“We need allyship,” Toufaily adds, “and we need it to be as loud as the FFF have been — if not louder.”
(Top photo of Nouhaila Benzina: Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
