People with lush hair or eye-catching hairstyles are sometimes discriminated against, for example at work. France now wants to ban all discrimination based on haircuts and hairstyles.
The French Parliament has approved in its first reading a legislative initiative that aims to ban all discrimination based on haircut and hairstyle.
While the USA and Great Britain have long been taking action against discrimination based on haircuts and hairstyles, the problem is still being ignored in France, argued the MP for the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, Olivier Serva, who introduced the initiative. This provides for explicit reference to the “cut, color, length or structure of the hair” in legal passages against discrimination. After Parliament’s approval, the Senate now has to approve the law.
In France, there is no clear legal framework for people who are discriminated against because of their hair structure, hair color or hairstyle, the MP complained. In the USA, for example, the state of California passed a decree in 2019 to combat discrimination based on hair color. Afterwards, 20 states and 30 cities in the US passed similar laws. And in Great Britain, a commission recommended not banning Afro haircuts in British schools.
Not being able to wear your natural hair without restrictions, be it in curls, with braids or in an afro look, affects self-esteem and self-confidence, the MP said. There could be restrictions at work, for example. The legal initiative does not only apply to ethnic groups; it also protects blonde women, for example, who, according to a study in Great Britain, sometimes dye their hair darker in order to appear more intelligent in a professional context.
Source: Stern
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