(New York) – The International Cricket Council should immediately suspend Taliban-run Afghanistan’s membership until women and girls can participate in the sport of cricket, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the council’s chair, Jay Shah, that was made public today. The championship of the men’s Champions Trophy 2025 international cricket tournament, featuring eight teams including Afghanistan, takes place on March 9, 2025, in Dubai.
Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have banned all sports for women and girls, forcing many athletes into hiding. Members of Afghanistan’s women’s national cricket team fled the country but have continued to practice and want to be recognized to compete internationally like the men’s national team. The International Cricket Council has recognized and supported Afghanistan’s men’s cricket but has ignored repeated appeals from the women’s national team.
“The International Cricket Council’s silence on the Taliban’s discriminatory prohibition on Afghan women and girls playing sports shows disturbing disregard for fundamental human rights,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed policies on women and girls that bar them from secondary and higher education and severely restrict employment, freedom of expression and movement, as well as banning sports and other outdoor activities.”
The Taliban have banned all sports for women and girls, closed sports training centers, and threatened women athletes. As a result, some Afghan women and girls who are athletes have fled the country and have had to rebuild their lives and sports careers in exile. Others were unable to leave, went into hiding, and sought to destroy evidence of their ties to sports, including medals and sport kits.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the governing body for global sport, recognized and financially supported Afghan women athletes living abroad to compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
Many members of the Afghan women’s national cricket team have continued training and playing in Australia. They played an exhibition match in January, when co-captain Firooza Amiri told the Associated Press that her team represents “millions of women in Afghanistan who are denied their rights.”
The International Cricket Council’s anti-discrimination policy states that it is “committed to ensuring that wherever cricket is played, it can be enjoyed by all players, player support personnel, officials, spectators, commercial partners and others” without discrimination on the basis of “gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status and/or maternity status.”
Under international cricket rules, member countries are required to recognize a women’s team for their men’s team to play internationally. Afghanistan has not met this requirement since August 2021. Afghan women cricket players say they have written to the International Cricket Council for support and recognition but have never received a response.
“It’s so painful and so disappointing,” Shabnam Ahsan, a cricket player, told the BBC in February. “I don't understand why they [the International Cricket Council] are not doing anything to help us. We have worked so hard, and we deserve help just like every other team.”
The International Cricket Council should adopt and carry out a human rights policy aligned with United Nations standards and:
Suspend Afghanistan’s men’s national team until the women’s team can play;
Support Afghanistan’s women’s national team in exile; and
Condition sponsorship on gender equality compliance.
Corporate sponsors of international cricket include Coca-Cola, Emirates, and Aramco, among others.
“With cricket entering the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, global sponsors of cricket and the International Olympic Committee can no longer ignore the Taliban’s blatant gender discrimination and violation of Olympic principles,” Worden said. “The International Cricket Council has the responsibility to ensure its systems do not ignore, or worse, encourage systematic gender discrimination.”