The world's biggest sporting festival is formally set to get underway on July 26 (Friday) with the Paris 2024 Olympics' opening ceremony scheduled at the French capital. Even before the sporting contest has formally begun, Sounkamba Sylla, France's 400-metre women's and mixed relay teams athlete Sounkamba Sylla has claimed that she has not been allowed to be part of the opening ceremony as she dons a hijab.
"You are selected for the Olympics, organized in your country, but you can’t participate in the opening ceremony because you wear a headscarf," Sylla wrote in her social media post ahead of the opening ceremony.
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Meanwhile, David Lappartient, who happens to be the president of the French Olympic Committee, weighed in on the issue by saying that the secular principle that apply to public sector workers in the country that separate the country and the church. That includes a ban on hijabs.
"It’s perhaps sometimes not understandable in other countries in the world, but it’s part of our DNA here in France," Lappartient said as quoted in a report carried by The Guardian.
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Amelie Oudea-Castera, the Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games of France, also explained the government's take on the issue.
"Our citizens expect us to follow these principles of secularism, but we also need to be inventive about solutions to make everyone feel good," she said as per the same report by the aforementioned publication.
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While it was later told that a solution had been reached without sharing of much detail, the French Olympic Committee has apparently told international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Sylla will be allowed to take part in the opening ceremony if she wears a cap for a hijab.