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Decathlon Pulls Sports Hijab off Shelves in France After Receiving Over 500 Complaints From Customers and Politicians

by in World on 28th February, 2019

Retailer Decathlon in France has issued a statement on pulling a recently announced sports hijab off shelves this week. The french retailer announced the new sports hijab retailing in stores in France and then the next day made a U-turn, a statement was issued the following day revealing that they had received over 500 complaints from the public and politicians. Physically threatening behavior and insults were directed to in-store staff according to the brand.

The statement : “Our customer service team has received more than 500 calls and emails this morning. Our store teams have been insulted and threatened, sometimes physically. Since this morning, we have been facing an unprecedented wave of insults.”

Politicians have also expressed various opinions with some initially calling for the brand to be boycotted because of the introduction of the product in the first place.

The hijab is permitted in France but some public spaces like state schools and some public buildings have imposed bans, we saw the burkini ban in 2016 which was later ruled illegal by Frnaces highest court.

Decathlon has over 1,500 stores in 49 countries including the UK, the brand have also been criticised for the move and there are an array of opinions and responses from twitter below:

Many have compared the contrasting headlines to the UK celebrating Muslim women in sports hijab.

Others have suggested that this is an indicator of the current levels of Islamophobia in France

The financial implications have also been raised

One reminded us that this shows us that Islamophobia is real and exists

More on Twitter

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