Members of Egypt’s women’s beach volleyball team have voiced their disapproval of France’s hijab ban for its athletes, following their own participation in an Olympic match against Spain while wearing modest attire.
Competing at the Paris Olympics, Marwa Abdelhady and Doaa Elghobashy wore hijabs, long black-sleeved shirts, and black ankle-length leggings.
If they were representing France, they would have been prohibited from wearing their hijabs due to the host nation’s ban on “ostensible religious symbols” in competition.
In an interview with CNN’s Swedish affiliate Expressen on Thursday, Abdelhady expressed her discontent with the hijab ban for French athletes. Elghobashy emphasized the importance of allowing athletes to wear what they prefer, as long as it respects their culture and religion.
Elghobashy remarked to Expressen, “I want to play in my hijab, she wants to play in a bikini. Everything is OK, if you want to be naked or wear a hijab.
Just respect all different cultures and religions.” She added, “I don’t tell you to wear a hijab and you don’t tell me to wear a bikini. No one can tell me how to dress. It’s a free country, everyone should be allowed to do what they want.”
In January 2022, the French senate passed a law banning the wearing of the hijab and other “ostensible religious symbols” in sports competitions. This ban was extended to include French athletes at the Paris Olympics when French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra confirmed in September that the country would adhere to “a strict regime of secularism, applied rigorously in the field of sport.”
Elghobashy made history as the first athlete to compete in beach volleyball wearing a hijab at the Olympics, debuting in 2016 in Rio De Janeiro after the International Volleyball Federation granted her last-minute permission to wear the head covering.
Speaking to CNN Sport last year, Elghobashy stated, “the hijab is part of me.”
This incident is part of a broader conversation about the policing of female athletes’ uniforms. In 2021, Double Paralympic world champion Olivia Breen was “speechless” after an official at the English Championships deemed her sprint briefs “too short and inappropriate.”
That same year, Norway’s women’s beach handball team was fined for “improper clothing” after choosing to wear shorts instead of bikini briefs during a European championship game in Bulgaria.
Elghobashy believes that the focus should be on her performance, not her attire. “At the end of the day, it’s a sport and I’m not a model. I’m an athlete and people should focus more on my athleticism rather than my clothes,” she said.
She added, “Just because I’m a hijabi doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have the opportunity to play at the Olympics. I did this, I achieved it. I deserved it.”
Henrik Pettersson contributed to this report, with previous reporting by CNN’s Amy Woodyatt, Chris Liakos, Maya Szaniecki, Shara Talia Taylor, and Eryn Mathewson.
