The nurse at the Parisian hospital of Pitié-Salpétrière, suspended for eight months by her employer AP-HP for refusing to remove her cap, has had her appeal dismissed before the administrative court, the court said in a statement on Wednesday.
"In view of the hospital worker's continued insistence on wearing her cap outside of any surgical procedure and in contradiction with the rules of hygiene and safety of care, despite repeated injunctions and the reprimand previously issued against her, the eight-month exclusion did not appear disproportionate, based on the current state of the investigation," indicated a statement from the Paris Administrative Court.
"However, this decision is provisional and is only valid until the final judgment is rendered," the court, which was ruling in summary proceedings, noted.
A surgical cap is a piece of protective equipment made of fabric, usually worn in the operating room or in intensive care.
Majdouline B., who wears a colorful skullcap with small hearts, was dismissed in November 2025 for this reason by the Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), but obtained a stay of execution and reinstatement through an emergency appeal. The Paris Administrative Court ruled in early January that the dismissal was a disproportionate sanction.
The young woman never indicated any religious affiliation, simply stating that wearing this equipment was a matter of her private life.
It is supported in particular by the Sud-Santé union of the Pitié Salpétrière, and by the CGT.
“There is an absurd crusade being waged by hospital administrations across France against colleagues perceived as Muslim,” stated Blandine Chauvel of Sud Santé La Pitié Salpétrière. “We have identified more than 30 hospitals throughout France where colleagues are victims of this witch hunt.”
"We are no longer in the defense of secularism, we are rather in the fantasy of the enemy within," declared Green Party MP Sandrine Rousseau, who came on Tuesday to offer her support to Majdouline B before the administrative court hearing.
Majdouline B's lawyer, Lionel Crusoe, for his part regretted that the court did not recognize the "disproportionate" nature of an eight-month suspension for acts of such a nature.
"In case law, however, a sanction of such severity is that classically taken, for example, against agents who are perpetrators of physical assault, moral or sexual harassment or embezzlement of public funds and more generally of acts having a criminal character," he said in a statement.
The New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), whose trade unionist Blandine Chauvel will head the list for the Paris municipal elections, has also expressed its support for the nurse. She will speak at the NPA's municipal campaign rally on February 19 in Paris, the party announced.
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