France passes Bill banning hair discrimination

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 some who called the bill an unnecessary import of US ideas.

Olivier Serva, a Black MP 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. s er va cited a 2023 study by Unilever's shampoobrand dove and linked in that showed that two out of three Black women in the US 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, will also protect blond women from sexist discrimination, Serva said. It adds discrimination over hair to existing anti-discrimination law.

The bill was approved by 44 legislators against only two, while many MPS did not vote. It has to be approved by senate to become a law. In the United States, at least 23 states have passed legislation aimed at protecting people from hair discrimination.

Fabien Di Filipo of the conservative Les Republicains mocked the bill, saying: "Should we tomorrow expect a bill on discrimination against bald people?"

He said France already bans discrimination based on looks so the draft bill was redundant, adding it aimed to import a U.S. mindset in French legislation.