VOA News | Friday, March 29, 2024 
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France’s National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit workplace discrimination rooted in hair texture and style. The bill was approved 44-2, with many members not voting. It must now pass the Senate, whose conservative majority makes its future less certain. Advocates of the proposed legislation argue that it seeks primarily to safeguard the rights of Black women who choose to wear their hair in a natural style. Olivier Serva, a National Assembly deputy for the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and the bill’s sponsor, said it would penalize any workplace discrimination based on “hair style, color, length or texture” and would help victims of discrimination make their struggles visible through court cases. He also included discrimination faced by blondes and redheads. “There is a lot of suffering [based on hair discrimination], and we need to take this into account,” he told Reuters. Laws in some 23 U.S. states recognize hair discrimination as a manifestation of racism. While statistics about hair discrimination are less clear in France, Serva referenced a study conducted in 2023 by LinkedIn and Unilever’s shampoo company Dove, which showed that roughly two-thirds of Black women in the United States alter their hair…Read more