The United Nations renewed its principled opposition to imposing or banning certain clothing on women, after preventing French athletes from wearing the hijab, in the name of secularism, during the Olympic Games in France next year.

“In general, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that no one should dictate to women what they should or should not wear,” Spokeswoman for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Marta Hurtado said today, Tuesday, at the regular United Nations press conference in Geneva.

This comes in response to statements made by French Sports Minister Amelie O'Dea Castera.

Hurtado recalled that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women obliges all parties - in this case France - to take “all appropriate measures necessary to modify any social or cultural model based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of one sex over the other.”

She stressed that “these discriminatory practices can have harmful consequences, and for this reason,” according to international human rights standards, restrictions on the expression of religions or beliefs, such as the choice of clothing, are only acceptable in very specific circumstances that proportionately and necessary address legitimate concerns concerning public safety, public order, public health or morals.”

Source: National Iraqi News Agency