Afghanistan Times
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KABUL – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to suspend Afghanistan from international cricket due to the Taliban’s systematic assault on women’s rights, which includes effectively outlawing all female sports. In a letter to ICC chair Jay Shah, HRW’s director of global initiatives, Minky Worden, urged the governing body to act until Afghan women and girls can once again participate in education and sports.
The Taliban’s ban on women’s sports directly violates the ICC’s membership terms, which require member nations to promote and develop cricket for both men and women. Despite this, the Afghanistan men’s team has continued to compete internationally, including in the recent ICC Champions Trophy, where England faced political pressure to boycott their match against Afghanistan but ultimately played and lost.
HRW emphasized that the Afghanistan Cricket Board is failing to comply with the ICC’s Anti-Discrimination Policy by not allowing women and girls to play cricket or field a national women’s team. The organization also called for the ICC to adopt a human rights policy based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
“With cricket entering the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, global sponsors and the International Olympic Committee can no longer ignore the Taliban’s blatant gender discrimination and violation of Olympic principles,” Worden wrote.
Afghanistan’s men’s team has seen recent success, reaching the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup and finishing sixth in the 2023 ODI World Cup after defeating England. However, HRW argues that allowing the team to compete while women are barred from the sport sends a harmful message and undermines efforts to promote gender equality.
