PARIS – The French National Assembly has approved the first reading and consideration of a bill by a parliamentarian that wants to criminalize discrimination or ridicule of certain hairstyles or the lack of hair growth.
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Olivier Serva, the initiator of the bill against ‘hair discrimination’.
France would become the first country with such a law if parliamentarian Olivier Serva’s proposal is adopted by both houses of parliament in the autumn. According to Serva, almost all political parties have already agreed to the idea.
Serva said in French media that he came up with the idea at the end of 2022 due to a lawsuit by Air France against a steward who wore braids. According to the company, only flight attendants were allowed to have long hair. Air France lost the case because the company was allegedly guilty of discrimination against men compared to women. But this was essentially about ‘hair discrimination’, said Serva, a bald representative from Guadeloupe.
Protection
The initiator has rejected criticism that his proposal is unnecessary because the law already lists 25 forms of discrimination at work. He hopes that the law will explicitly protect people with, for example, afro hairstyles or long, braided, red or no hair at all against discrimination or derogatory comments.
Tags: French parliament starts bill hair discrimination
