IOC urged to help overturn French headscarves ban at Olympics

The issue of athletes and headscarves at the Olympics has long rumbled in the background in the lead-up to the Paris Games. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP

Human rights groups have called on the International Olympic Committee to help overturn a ban on French athletes wearing headscarves, arguing that the prohibition had left many Muslim athletes being “invisibilised, excluded and humiliated”.

The call, outlined in a letter published by organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, comes less than two months before the Olympics and Paralympics are set to begin in Paris.