French National Assembly votes to outlaw hair discrimination

France's lower house of parliament or National Assembly approved a bill on Thursday that aims to ban any discrimination based on hair and hairstyle.

Olivier Serva, a Black member of parliament from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, who drafted the bill, said it would help victims of such discrimination and make their voices heard.

Hair discrimination creates suffering, French lawmaker says

"There is a lot of suffering (based on hair discrimination) and we need to take this into account," Serva told Reuters.

Serva also included discrimination suffered by blondes, redheads and bald men in his proposal. He points to an American study stating that a quarter of Black women polled said they had been ruled out for jobs because of how they wore their hair at the job interview.

During the parliamentary debate, lawmaker Fanta Berete, originally from Guinea, said she too, had been told in the past to straighten her hair in job interviews.

The bill was approved by 44 legislators against only two. Many members of the parliament did not vote at all for this first reading of the text, as is often the case.

The bill will now head to the French Senate where conservatives have the majority and the vote's outcome is much less certain.

Opponent of bill says it is unnecessary

The bill's critics say it is unnecessary, as discrimination based on looks is already banned by law.

"There is no legal void here," said Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specializing in labor law. Calling any future law "symbolic," Rocheblave said it would not be of much practical help when it came to proving discrimination in court.

Similar laws exist in around 20 US states which have identified hair discrimination as an expression of racism. In Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued guidelines against hair discrimination in schools.

ssa/wd (dpa, AFP)