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En France, the topic of hair discrimination – mockery about baldness for instance – is typically humorous however it’s taken very significantly in most Anglo-Saxon nations. Thus we be taught, by consulting the invoice from MP Liot Olivier Serva, that California adopted, in July 2019, a “CROWN act” (an acronym that could possibly be translated into French as “making a respectful and open world for pure hair)! The regulation was subsequently adopted in 14 different US states. And the topic of hiring discrimination has been studied for years at prestigious American and British universities.
But, in France, there’s clearly, in line with Olivier Serva, a “hole in the racket” on this difficulty. It is to fill this “legal void” that the deputy of the 1D constituency of Guadeloupe has tabled a textual content that it desires to be “transpartisan”. On Wednesday March 20, deputies adopted this invoice aimed toward recognizing and penalizing hair discrimination. Next step, an examination of the textual content in public session Thursday March 28.
Point : Why did you desk a invoice aimed toward “recognizing and penalizing hair discrimination”?
Olivier Serva: I used to be notably involved by a call handed down by the Court of Cassation on November 23, 2022. It discovered that the corporate Air France had dedicated discrimination by prohibiting a steward from carrying braids. He was fired for that reason. However, the rules licensed “African braids” for girls, offered that they had been held in a bun. He lastly received his case however he needed to wait ten years! And the courts didn’t make this choice on the premise of hair discrimination however due to male-female discrimination. I due to this fact recognized a authorized void, a gap within the racket that I wished to fill.
Some individuals marvel concerning the usefulness of such a regulation, recalling {that a} regulation regarding bodily discrimination had already been adopted in 2001. What do you reply them?
The textual content that I’m proposing is complementary because it goals to combine into the sector of legal repression of discrimination any discrimination or distinction primarily based on the feel, shade, size or type of hair of a person. By particularly designating hair discrimination, I’m supplementing the 2001 regulation by including one other type of discrimination which should, for my part, be taken extra significantly in France.
However, it’s a topic that the Anglo-Saxon world has been fascinated about for years…
Yes completely, we’ve little or no knowledge in France as a result of ethnic research are usually not licensed. But the research carried out by the United Kingdom or the United States, for instance, are notably enlightening. A really current examine from Dove and LinkedIn signifies that two-thirds of African-American girls say they alter their coiffure earlier than a job interview. And it's not simply an ethnic drawback since within the United Kingdom, in 2009, a 3rd of blonde girls surveyed stated they needed to dye their hair brown to look extra clever within the eyes of their employers. It impacts everybody, in any respect ranges! We be taught this by studying Michelle Obama’s memoirs – This gentle in us – that the primary girl felt obliged to straighten her hair throughout her husband's eight years in workplace.
Other research present us that it is usually a public well being drawback. A current National Institute of Health (NIH) examine present in 2012 that the chance of creating uterine most cancers was a lot greater amongst girls who use hair merchandise to straighten their hair than amongst those that don’t. not: 4.05% versus 1.64%. Another examine carried out by epidemiology researchers in Boston has additionally established a correlation between the usage of these merchandise and fibroids.
Finally, it’s a societal drawback. The sociologist Jean-François Amadieu, director of the Discrimination Observatory on the Sorbonne, explains very nicely in his e-book The Society of Publication that flattening your hair can also be, in a manner, flattening your persona. This disrupts shallowness and may result in psychological problems in the affected person.
What do you plan ?
The transpartisan invoice that I’m supporting and which is able to, I hope, be mentioned in Parliament in October, comprises two articles. The first article goals to strengthen article 225-1 of the Penal Code, by integrating hair discrimination and the second article ought to make it potential to change the Labor Code in the identical manner.
https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/le-sujet-des-discriminations-capillaires-doit-etre-pris-au-serieux-27-04-2023-2518078_20.php