SA must bat for the right of Afghani women and girls to play cricket

Dear Mr Moseki,

I am writing to ask that Cricket South Africa and its representative in the International Cricket Council (ICC) challenge the ban on women’s and girls’ cricket in Afghanistan.

And that this is done before South Africa plays against Afghanistan in the ICC Champions Trophy at Karachi, on 21 February 2025.

Upon regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, one of the Taliban government’s first acts was to ban women from sport. They raided the homes of female athletes, some of whom were forced to burn their kits to avoid being identified. The national Afghan women’s cricket team was disbanded and forced to flee the country; it is now in exile.

That is a direct contravention of ICC rules requiring all member Test nations to support and fund women’s cricket. The 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 despite Afghanistan cricket being out of compliance with its membership requirements to provide for women’s cricket. And despite members of the former Afghanistan national women’s cricket team calling upon the ICC to recognise an Afghan women’s refugee team to enable them to play, there has been no progress.

Read more: Afghanistan should celebrate their cricket success – but the world must not forget the Taliban’s oppression of women

This denial of opportunities for Afghan women cricketers forms just one element of the Taliban’s oppression of women and girls.

Sport was only the first joy to be removed from women in Afghanistan, and since then the Taliban have removed their most basic human rights and freedoms on 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, 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.

Read more: The Proteas will play Afghanistan in a bilateral series for the first time, but should they?

Will South African cricket please raise the plight of Afghan women cricketers in the ICC and express firm solidarity with Afghan women and girls who wish to play?

Having struggled long and hard for black and brown cricketers to represent their country like whites did exclusively for nearly a century, I hope that post-apartheid South African cricket will press for similar rights for all women in world cricket.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Hain DM