For over a year, the Hijabeuses collective has been attacking the French Football Federation to obtain the right to wear the hijab during competitions. The FFF has refused. The Hijabeuses have found legal and logistical support from an activist association, Alliance Citoyenne, at the origin of the burkini affair. And the case has been brought before the judges of the Council of State.
An LGBT association, Les Dégommeuses, joined in. And the disoriented Human Rights League followed suit, in the process abjuring its attachment to republican values.
The media created the necessary storytelling. The story is beautiful: young girls wearing the hijab claim the freedom to play football. Eurosport[1] directs a docu-fiction, “The inspiring story of the French football team Les Hijabeuses”, to the sound of a melancholic piano, video portraits without words with a modern blur, and unfolds in 3 minutes an “inspiring” story. The FFF would break the potentially extraordinary career of these young players by banning them from playing football. France would be “blocked” by its obsession with secularism, understand old-fashioned. Besides, it would not be a religious or political question, it would be a question of individual freedom…
A few compassionate tears later, the opinion of the rapporteur of the Council of State falls. It is favorable to the Hijabeuses, precisely on the grounds of secularism. We imagine popping the corks of Champomy until the Council of State announces its final decision. No, the Hijabeuses will not win their case. The rapporteur has indeed misanalyzed the situation (what is his point?): the question of secularism is not at stake. It is the notion of neutrality that proves the French Football Federation right. Neutrality is required to play football: no distinctive sign, except the uniform of one's team. No religious, ethnic, or political element is authorized by virtue of the requirement of neutrality. This value is indeed the essential condition so that no conflict, no value other than those of sport, comes to disturb the pleasure of being together and playing. Moreover, the notion of neutrality is enshrined at all levels of sport, notably in the Olympic Charter itself in article 50.
The FFF was defended by only one association: the International Women's Rights League (LDIF), founded by Simone de Beauvoir. We interviewed its president, Annie Sugier (see our new online videos section). She describes precisely how the demand for the wearing of the Hijab in sport has been an express request from Iran since the 1990s.You see, specifies Annie Sugier, that this strategy, born in 1990 in Iran, is taken up by the "women and sport" networks which are in cultural relativism, taken up by the sports federations, taken up by the Ministers of Sports, and finally taken up by the United Nations. So we can follow this logic of an, once again, intelligent strategy.“It’s been 50 years of lobbying…”Where were the French?”, asks Annie Sugier…
So, “we won!” we want to sing. Not so sure.I think there will be other attempts. We have before us, once again, people who have understood the importance of the issues surrounding sport, especially in the perspective of the Olympic Games. It is a place of obvious proselytism that is aimed at young people.”, explains Annie Sugier.
In reality, we can fear that the damage has been done. Why? The identitarian strategy has developed a “win-win” strategy: either it wins with the Council of State, and literally overturns the rules for all sports federations. Or it loses, but has had time to spread in all the media, national, international, but especially in social networks [2] to Generation Z with its compassionate victim message.
GenZ doesn’t read newspapers, neither in print nor online. Their sources of information are YouTube and TikTok. YouTube is also the second largest search engine in the world, just behind Google Search. Last July, Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president of Google, declared [3] even : "According to our studies, almost 40% of young people, when they are looking for a place to have lunch, do not go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram."Activists are already very present on these media and publish daily messages claiming a racial, ethnic or religious identity. What is refused to the Hijabeuses will undoubtedly be understood by the youngest as a coercive action fomented by old conservatives who stick to their principles from another century.
It is up to us to convey another message: the rejection of identity politics, and its corollary, secularism, are the future of the 21st century.
