Banned French basketball player desires to return to court wearing headscarf

PARIS (AA) – French basketball player Salimata Sylla is desperate to play in official matches with her head cover after being barred from wearing a headscarf in January this year.

Nicknamed “Sali,” a player for the 3rd league team Aubervilliers, began wearing a headscarf three years ago.

Salimata Sylla says she aspires to return to the FFBB league with her headscarf. She says that the French Handball Federation allows women to play with heads covered.

Born in Paris, Sylla, now 25, started playing basketball 14 years ago with the guidance of her sisters.

“My family, my friends, everybody accepts me as I am because I am ‘Sali,'” Sylla says.

On January 8, the young player was barred from participating in official matches by French authorities.

In the city of Escaudain, her coach came to her two minutes before the match began and said: “I am sorry Sali, but you cannot play with your scarf on.”

She then talked to the referees, and they told her that “any accessory covering the head is considered inconvenient for the game,” as stated in the regulation of the French Federation of Basketball (FFBB).

‘Ball.Her’ league

Sylla then created the “Ball.Her” Women League, and says, “I want to build sane courts for everyone. We cannot find ourselves humiliated in the court and out. The ‘Ball.Her Women’s’ League is here to admit all the girls, without discrimination or inequality, for us to enjoy the basketball we love so much.”

Since 2017, the French government and the International Federation of Basketball have allowed players to wear scarves while playing, she adds.

The FFBB has yet to respond to her questions about the ban.

French law sees the Islamic headscarf as a violation of its secular principles. Earlier, the full-body swimwear ‘burkini’ was also banned by French authorities, barring Muslim women from participating in swimming events.