Meanwhile, France has been criticised for its decision to bar its sportswomen from wearing the hijab. Although the International Olympics Committee IOC has allowed international athletes to wear the hijab, French sportswomen will still be barred from exercising the right to wear the outfits of their choice during the Summer Olympics, which started on Friday and continue until August Women should be allowed to wear outfits they feel comfortable in, they say.
The attire for men is a tank top and shorts that hit below the fingertips of the mannequin wearing them. For women, the kit is a leotard with a high-cut bikini line, drawing ire from female athletes. The IOC ruled that athletes were free to wear the headscarf. However, French athletes are still subject to the rules of their sports federation and are not allowed to wear hijabs during the games. They note laws to ban the headscarf and the abaya, a loose-fitting, long-sleeved robe, in public schools in and in , respectively.
However, this is not a story that began in April or September. Female athletes have long been unhappy with the sports kits they are required to wear. Those findings were published in February.
English hockey player Tess Howard also researched this as a student at Durham University, concluding that gendered sports kits such as skirts often cause teenage girls to drop out of sports.
Her research involving more than women was published in April. Seventy percent of the women surveyed said they had seen girls drop out of sports because of sports uniforms creating body image concerns. Victoria University in Australia surveyed girls to assess their beliefs about sport uniforms. Sixty-five percent did not want to wear skirts during school sports. Experts say another reason so many women are put off professional sports is that female athletes are too often subjected to focus on their attire and body shapes rather than their abilities and performance.
