Dear Richard Gould,
We are writing to express our profound concern regarding the England cricket men’s team’s upcoming match against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month, given the appalling oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan and the removal of their rights that continues unabated.
Upon regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, one of the Taliban’s first acts was banning women from sport. They raided the homes of female athletes, some of whom were forced to burn their kits to avoid being identified. The women’s cricket team was disbanded and having fled the country are now in exile.
Aside from being morally repugnant, this is a direct contravention of International Cricket Council (ICC) rules that require all Test nations to support and fund women’s cricket. As you know, the Afghanistan men’s cricket team is still allowed to compete internationally, while their women’s team is denied the same right. Cricket’s world governing body has not taken any action against the Afghanistan men’s team. Despite members of the former Afghanistan women’s team calling on the ICC to help them form and recognise a refugee team to enable them to play, there has been no progress.
As the English team prepares for its upcoming scheduled match to play Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month, the former Afghan women’s team remain in exile with no near prospect of being able to compete on the world stage, while back home in Afghanistan no new girls or women are learning to play cricket, or any sport for that matter.
This blatant denial of opportunities for Afghan women cricketers is appalling and forms just one element of the Taliban’s unconscionable oppression of women and girls that continues unabated. Sport was only the first joy to be removed from women in Afghanistan, and since then life for them has become incomprehensibly unbearable, with the Taliban removing their most basic human rights and freedoms at a prolific scale.
Women are denied access to schools and universities, have been barred from most forms of employment and have now been denied all healthcare, as they can no longer train as nurses or be treated by male medics. They are banned from beauty salons, stadiums, gyms and parks, and cannot travel alone without a male chaperone, dance, sing or drive. Their faces are banned from view, their voices from being heard, even in prayer. Most recently, the Taliban has banned windows through which women might be glimpsed in their domestic spaces.
As the world watches this insidious dystopia unfold, women in Afghanistan find themselves erased from the most innocent of daily activities, imprisoned at home, risking torture and public execution if they protest or do not comply.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is not blind to this abhorrence. Last year, you confirmed that England would not schedule a bilateral series against Afghanistan while women were banned from sport.
Now, with England scheduled to play Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month, you have a precious opportunity to extend those principles and condemn this abhorrent oppression. We strongly urge the England cricket men’s team players and officials to speak out against the horrific treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
We also urge the ECB to consider a boycott of the upcoming match against Afghanistan in the ICC Champion’s Trophy Group stage on 26 February to send a clear signal that such grotesque abuses will not be tolerated.
We must stand against sex apartheid, and we implore the ECB to deliver a firm message of solidarity and hope to Afghan women and girls that their suffering has not been overlooked.
Yours sincerely,
Tonia Antoniazzi MP
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Dame Caroline Dinenage MP Sarah Champion MP
Debbie Abrahams MP
Helen Hayes MP
Chi Onwurah MP
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