In an interview with BeIn Sport, rugby player Assa Koita reconsidered her choice to wear the headscarf and stopping her international career. Two events that she links.
Rugby player Assa Koïta made her international debut in 2014 with the France team, of which she was one of the flagship players. The young woman then continued a club career until 2020, when she announced her retirement from sports. In an interview with BeIn Sport on Sunday January 17, 2021, Assa Koïta discusses why she was not selected for the French team from 2015. According to her, it is her decision to wear the hijab that ended his international career. Still, they and her teammates were certain of the excellence of her level at the time and even observed an improvement.
Responding to the journalist's questions, the player said: “Once I started wearing the headscarf, I got calls from the French Rugby Federation. I thought it was an angry topic and raised questions. I was asked. questions, people were afraid but I reassured them […] ".
Despite the discriminatory situation she evokes, Assa Koïta speaks without resentment or animosity. But she regrets having been stopped in her dreams of an international career and denounces a form of infantilization. This decision to wear a headscarf, she chose it alone, in her soul and conscience, and not for a man, as is too often asked of the women concerned. While religion is important and part of it, as she explains, it is also a private matter, she says. This problem only arose for the selections for the France team, since the young woman was able to continue playing for the club. Since the interview, however, the Federation has refuted his explanation.
Not a religious problem, according to the French Rugby Federation
The rugbyrama site has contacted Annick Hayraud, manager of the France team about this. This denies the accusations of religious discrimination and puts forward a question of level: "Simply, if Assa did not return to the selection, it is because she had not regained the level at which we had known her and that overall, she had difficulty coming back, that's all. [… ] The subject of the veil never arose. Concerning me, I simply wondered during a discussion with her why she had started to wear the veil when she had not worn it before. repeat: his religion did not enter in any case in our selection criteria ".
The young woman's voice allows in any case to raise the question of the invisibilization of women choosing to wear the veil in all areas of society, even if it means depriving themselves of talents. And it is all the more courageous since the subject of the headscarf in sport has triggered several waves of anti-Muslim hatred in France, in particular at the beginning of 2019, when Décathlon put on sale a running hijab, allowing veiled sportswomen to to practice the race while respecting their choice to dress as they wish.