Netherlands’ Muslim athlete Sifan Hassan earned global acclaim after receiving her gold medal at the final 2024 Paris Olympic Games ceremony on Sunday while wearing a hijab, in a defiant message again France’s controversial hijab ban.
Hassan delivered a remarkable surge in the final 250 meters of the women’s marathon, clinching gold with an Olympic record time of 2:22:55, The London Economic reported.
Viewers took to X to praise Hassan with one user saying: “Sifan Hassan wearing her hijab to her gold medal crowning ceremony for the women’s marathon, after France banned females from wearing hijabs at the 2024 games. She is so powerful. What a woman!”
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Another said: “Congrats to Hassan! Love seeing the image of her wearing hijab in the host country that banned its own athletes from wearing it.”
A third user claimed it was an ‘unforgettable moment for her and the entire world’.
Similarly, Instagram users praised her, with one commenting: “The last medalist of Paris 2024 is a woman who chooses to wear hijab. The irony of that being in a host country that bans hijab in sport is incredible.”
Iconic
A person wrote: “How ironic! A slap in the face of xenophobic France, which prevented its own athletes from participating because of their hijabs.
“And there stands Sifan proudly receiving her gold medal while wearing her hijab. FANTASTIC!”
“SUCH A STATEMENT WEARING HIJAB THANK YOU SISTER,” a netizen added.
Last September, French Minister of Sports Amelia Oudea-Castera announced athletes representing France would not be allowed to wear the hijab.
There was strong back-lash from a number of organisations including Amnesty International who, a week before the Games commenced, wrote: “French authorities made it emphatically and unashamedly clear… that their proclaimed efforts at improving gender equality and inclusivity in sports do not apply to one group of women and girls – those Muslim women and girls who wear religious head coverings.”