evidence: After months of campaigning by sporting organizations, France has not reversed its decision to ban French athletes who observe the hijab from participating in the summer Olympics; a move that human rights organizations say is, at best, a contradiction of the nation’s pledge to deliver the first gender-equal games, and at worst, a breach of international human rights treaties. "It shows Muslim women that when the French authorities talk about equality between men and women, they don't see them as women. They don't count them," says Anna Błuś, Amnesty International’s women’s rights researcher in Europe. "It's really important for major human rights organizations such as ours, to be very vocal on this issue, and to publicly show solidarity with Muslim women's rights groups," Błuś says. "These communities and these women have been demonized and vilified for years." On Tuesday, Amnesty International published a report calling out French authorities for the "discriminatory hypocrisy" of its hijab bans across a number of sports including soccer, volleyball, and basketball. Amnesty’s report details the racial and gendered discrimination and barriers to entry that French Muslim athletes currently face at professional and amateur level. It also addresses the IOC’s refusal to apply pressure on authorities to overturn the ban, which does not apply to non-French participants at the Olympics.