France's lower house of parliament approved legislation on Thursday to outlaw discrimination against dreadlocks, braids, afros and any other hair style, colour or texture, defeating some who called the bill an unnecessary import of U.S. ideas. Olivier Serva, a Black MP from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, who drafted the bill, said it would help victims of such discrimination, in the workplace and beyond, make their voices heard and win court cases. "There is a lot of suffering (based on hair discrimination) and we need to take this into account," he told Reuters.
France's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on hair texture, which the draft law's backers say targets mostly black women wearing their hair naturally.The bill was approved in the lower house National Assembly with 44 votes in favour and two against.
The proposed change would protect styles such as braids, twists, tight coils or cornrows. It’s part of a national effort to include hair as part of discrimination protections.
A Houston-area judge ruled Thursday that Barbers Hill ISD's policy restricting hair length for boys, which it has used to continually punish 18-year-old Black student Darryl George, is not a violation of the CROWN Act, a new state law protecting students and employees at state-funded institutions from race-based hair discrimination.