Wearing a headscarf or hijab during a football match is authorised by the sport's world governing body FIFA. But they remained banned for official games in France. A group of Muslim women players are fighting against this discriminatory policy and are calling on the French football authorities, the Fédération Française de Football (FFF), to change their rules. As part of that battle the group, known as Les Hijabeuses, organised a football tournament on the outskirts of Paris. Mickaël Correia reports.
The sun is already beating down on the artificial pitches and the sound system is blaring out the latest hit from the Parisian rapper MHD. “Would you mind giving me the small ladder so that I can put the banner up?” one young female footballer asks another. The words on the banner read: “Football For All”. It is the morning of Sunday June 13th and 16 teams from across the Paris region have turned up for a women's football tournament organised by Les Hijabeuses at La Courneuve, just north of the capital.
