Originally created in Morocco at the request of customers there, Decathlon’s “hijab de running” is a nylon hood designed to allow Muslim women to cover their hair while out running. After days of heated public debate and virulent criticism on social media, Decathlon said it would not sell the item in France over concerns about the safety of its staff, which it said had been insulted and threatened on social media. But the hijab controversy has nevertheless, exposed further divisions among members of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party over the compatibility of Islam with French secularism, or “laïcité”.
Aurore Bergé, a member of Mr Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) party, said on Twitter: “My choice as a woman and citizen will be to no longer trust Decathlon, a brand that breaks with our [secular] values.”
But Aurélien Taché, another LREM lawmaker, took the opposite position from Mrs Bergé, saying on his Twitter feed that the “obsession with the [Muslim] veil and Islam … is a French exception we could all do without”.
Government officials also weighed in on the hijab debate, with Budget Minister Gérald Darmanin saying: “I value women’s freedom more than I do commercial freedom”.
“Is [the sale of running hijabs] legal? Yes, it’s legal. Does it shock me? Yes, it shocks me,” Mr Darmanin told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday.
“But this is not a legal question, it’s a political question,” he continued.
Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet struck a more reserved tone, saying French sports stores are free to sell the running hijab and that there are no legal objections.
“The debate on this subject has become hysterical and I regret that,” she told the news channel BFM TV. “Consumers make their own choices.”
“It is important for [Decathlon] to respect the law, which is based on the principle of laïcité but also on other constraints like the ban on wearing a face-covering veil in a public place. So long as the law is respected, I have no further comments,” Mrs Belloubet continued.
Labour Minister Muriel Pénicaud for her part, welcomed Decathlon’s U-turn, saying it was “not necessary to trouble minds for commercial reasons”.
France’s official secularism sidelines faith in the public sphere.
Civil servants cannot wear ostentatious religious symbols or hair-covering veils during working hours, and face-covering veils are banned for everybody in the public space. Items of clothing seen as asserting a religious identity often spark controversy, even if legal.
In the summer of 2016, scores of French seaside towns banned the full-body burkini swimsuit worn by some Muslim women, arguing that the garment – which leaves only the face, hands and feet exposed – defied French laws on secularism and was causing public unrest.
But the controversial bans, issued in the form of mayoral decrees, were later lifted.
The running hijab is still available on Decathlon’s Moroccan website for 79 Moroccan dirhams (£6.23).
Similar head-covering garments not implicitly associated to Islam such as hoods for hunting or desert-trekking are still available in Decathlon’s French stores.
In addition, Nike Inc. – among other sports retailers – sells a sports hijab for 30 euros (£25.68) on its French website.