FIFA WORLD CUP 2022 France Muslim players
Fifa world cup is one of the biggest events in the world. It is happening this year in 2022. Qatar is the first Muslim country to host this tournament. Muslims like Zinedine Zidane, Karim Benzema and Mesut Özil have engraved their names in the history of this sport. A lot of muslim players will be representing their countries this year like the legendary Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez. France won the 2018 world cup. It’s team was hailed as one of the greatest teams ever. One reason the French team was appreciated so much was its diversity. It had 7 muslim players. Paul Pogba, Ousmane Dembele and N’Golo Kante are some of the biggest names in the game. French victory give rise to a whole lot of French Muslim girls who wants to play football as well. But unfortunately they are being blocked. On January 18, 2022, 160 French senators voted to prohibit religious symbols within sports federations, therefore during official competitions. That will keep many Muslim girls from playing soccer. But these football playing girls are not giving up on their dreams. This is Paris's Luxembourg garden. It is just behind the French Senate which is trying to block girls with Hijab from sports. They are protesting their ban from sports competitions. They have even formed a union. It is called Collective Les Hijabeuses. It means a collective of headscarf-wearing soccer players. Here is Founé Diawara, co-president of the collective Les Hijabeuses, "What bothers us is that thousands of women are being left out of this sport. They exclude us, whereas the fundamental values of football and sport are to unite and to come together. We don't see why we should remove it. There is no reason, there is nothing in the law. So I don't see why we would be forced to remove it. Above all, it is something personal. There is nobody who can ask us to remove it." French must not force French Muslim girls to chose between their faith and football.
