French lawmakers vote to outlaw discrimination against afros and braids

France’s lower house of parliament approved legislation on Thursday to outlaw discrimination against dreadlocks, braids, afros and any other hair style, colour or texture, defeating opponents who called the bill an unnecessary importation of US ideas.

Olivier Serva, amember of the National Assembly from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, who drafted the bill, said it would help victims of such discrimination, in the workplace and beyond, make their voices heard and win court cases.

“There is a lot of suffering [based on hair discrimination] and we need to take this into account,” he told Reuters.

The bill must be approved by the Senate to become a law.

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Mr Serva cited a 2023 study by Unilever’s shampoo brand Dove and LinkedIn that showed that two out of three black women in the United States changed their hair for a job interview, and that black women’s hair was 2.5 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional.

The bill, which aims to ban all discrimination against hair texture or hair cuts, would also protect blonde women from sexist discrimination, Mr Serva said.

Only 50 of the National Assembly’s 577 deputies were present for the vote, but they overwhelmingly backed the bill by a margin of 44 to two. There were four abstentions.

In the US, at least 23 states have passed legislation aimed at protecting people from hair discrimination in the workplace and public schools.

The proposal has met with opposition in France, which prides itself on a culture of universalism that states that all people are equal, and which does not allow ethnic quotas, or even collecting data based on ethnicity.

Speaking in the parliamentary committee that discussed the draft bill ahead of the full National Assembly debate, Fabien Di Filipo of the conservative Les Republicains mocked the bill, saying: “Should we tomorrow expect a bill on discrimination against bald people, which I think are underrepresented in shampoo ads?”

Philippe Schreck of the far-right National Rally told parliament lawmakers should work on what he said were more important issues, such as the country’s public debt, rather than on hair discrimination.

On the streets of Paris, however, several black women expressed support for the draft legislation.

“I think this is a good bill, because I’ve worn my natural hair since I was six. I’ll turn 20 soon, and I think that afro hair really characterises a person,” said student Didi Makeda.

"Every individual is born with a particular type of hair, so I really agree with what they have done to penalise companies that refuse to hire candidates because of the type of hair they have," said student Tracy Kofi.

People who don’t fit in Eurocentric standards are facing discrimination, stereotypes and bias

—  Olivier Serva

Mr Serva says if the measure eventually becomes law, it willmake France the first country in the world to recognise discrimination based on hair at a national level.

“This is a great step forward for our country,” he said after the vote. “France has done itself proud.”

The bill would amend existing anti-discrimination measures in the labour code and criminal code to explicitly outlaw discrimination against people with curly and coiled hair or other hairstyles perceived as unprofessional, as well as bald people.

It does not specifically target race-based discrimination, though that was the primary motivation for the bill.

“People who don’t fit in Eurocentric standards are facing discrimination, stereotypes and bias,” Mr Serva, who is black, told the Associated Press.

Leftist parties and members of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party Renaissance have supported the bill, which was enough to get it through the National Assembly.

The bill is now headed for the conservative-dominated Senate, where it will likely face opposition from right-wing and far-right lawmakers who see it as an effort to import US concepts about race and racial discrimination to France. – Reuters/AP

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024