Top 5 sports Afghan women played internationally before Taliban's return - Here's how they performed
Foreseeing what was coming their way, 75 Afghan woman soccer players left Kabul last month with their relatives after threats from the Taliban.
The Taliban rule has begun in Afghanistan and with this, curb on humanitarian rights along with discrimination suffered by women including in areas of sport has also begun. Taliban's earlier claims of being a changed and more inclusive regime seem to fall apart. But this come more of a shock to the outside world than the women of Afghanistan who feared this was coming.
Taliban on Wednesday cleared that women cannot participate in sports including cricket as sporting activities would 'expose their bodies'. Head of Taliban's cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq told the media that sports activities were not necessary for women.
Wasiq last month told media that the Taliban would allow men's cricket to continue and that it has given approval for the men's national team to travel to Australia for a test match in November. Meanwhile, Cricket Australia in a statement released Thursday, said it would not proceed with the planned test starting November 27 if news reports of Taliban views on the women's game were true.
The future of Afghanistan's international cricket is in jeopardy following the Taliban's reported opposition to women playing the sport. Australian Sports Minister Richard Colbeck cleared that Afghan athletes would 'remain welcome in Australia, but not under the flag of the Taliban'.
In November 2020, twenty-five female cricketers were awarded central contracts by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). Afghanistan Cricket Board also held a 21-day training camp for 40 female cricketers in Kabul. ICC requires all 12 of its full members to have a national women's team and only full members of the ICC are permitted to play Test matches.
Taliban has cleared that women will not be allowed to play cricket because a situation may come when their faces and body will not be covered. Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed, it said.
(Image Source: Twitter)
The women's national football team of Afghanistan was controlled by the Afghanistan Football Federation until the fall of Kabul in 2021. 75 Afghan woman soccer players left Kabul last month and have taken refugee in Australia after being under threat from the Taliban.
The Afghan woman soccer team was created in 2007 in a country where women playing sport was seen as a political act of defiance. Players had been advised to delete social media posts and photographs of them with the team to help avoid reprisals after the Taliban took over.
Earlier, Afghanistan national women's team players had sought help after the Taliban took over the country, fearing repercussions.
(Image Source: Twitter@OLYMPICAFG)
The Afghanistan women's national volleyball team represented Afghanistan in international women's volleyball competitions and friendly matches. In 2011, sixteen female Volleyball players, three coaches, and three other representatives participated in an exercise session in Tajikistan.
This was the first time that the Afghan National Female Volleyball team went abroad for a practical session. Back then, the Afghan Olympic committee had said it would try to conduct more training sessions for the Afghan National Female Teams outside the country.
(Image Source: Twitter@OLYMPICAFG)
Sabir, the trainer who put it together and who has also fled Afghanistan, went around all the schools in Kabul to find girls prepared to sign up. To begin with, only four came forward, among them, the Rahimi sisters. But then his initiative gathered momentum. The female boxing team was established in 2007.
Sadaf and Shabnam had just returned to their country after almost nine years in Iran, where their parents sought refuge when the Taliban came to power. Sadaf was selected for the London Olympics but the Afghan Olympic Committee cancelled her place on the team a month before the Games, replacing her with a male boxer.
The female national team was set up with the permission of the government and initially had the support of the Afghan Olympic Committee and the Federation. But things began to change with a shift in the political situation and more conservative groups gaining power and influence, not just in the country but also within the Federation.
Once the Rahimi sisters, Sadaf and Shabnam left Afghanistan, female selection ceased to exist and now under the Taliban rule, there is no scope for female boxing.
(Image Source: Official account of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA))
Girls playing chess in insurgency-plagued and conservative Afghanistan was a new phenomenon that has been growing slowly but steadily. Afghan youths made tremendous achievements in the fields of sports over the past nearly two decades with athletes bringing home medals.
From regional and international games including the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, athletes brought medals for their country. More than 50 girls were busy learning chess in the training centres in the recent past and the number was on the rise.
(Image Source: Official account of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA))