The International Cricket Council (ICC) is under increasing pressure to address Afghanistan’s violations of women’s rights. An international non-governmental organisation called Human Rights Watch (HRW), which studies and advocates for human rights violations by governments and non-state entities worldwide, has called on the ICC to suspend the Afghanistan Cricket Board’s (ACB) membership.
“At this time, we are writing to request that the International Cricket Council (ICC) bar Taliban-run Afghanistan from joining the ICC and from playing international cricket until women and girls are able to resume their participation in sport and education in the nation. In a letter to Jay Shah on Friday, March 7, HRW also urged the ICC to adopt a human rights policy grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
On the eve of the Champions Trophy final in Dubai, the letter arrives. The ICC chairman has been reminded by Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch, that the Taliban’s prohibition on women’s rights is against the Olympic charter because cricket has been included to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We note that cricket has been included as a sport in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and yet the Taliban’s ban on women and girls participating in the sport is a severe violation of the Olympic Charter’s guarantee that” the practice of sport is a human right. The Strategic Framework on Human Rights of the International Olympic Committee mandates that all international sports federations adopt “equality and non-discrimination.” The letter states that a remedy for gender-based discrimination in the workplace is required by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
All sports for girls and women are prohibited by the Taliban. In Australia, a few female Afghanistan cricket players are hiding.
“The Olympic Charter and the ICC’s own anti-discrimination regulations do not seem to be broken by this unequal treatment, where the Afghan Men’s National Cricket Team receives financial and logistical support while the Women’s National Team does not. The International Olympic Committee suspended Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee until 2003 in October 1999, during the Taliban’s prior rule, on the basis that the Taliban were preventing women from participating in sports, according to HRW.
Cricbuzz has requested a response from the ICC. Shah had already vowed to support women’s cricket. “We are committed to supporting cricket development through the Afghanistan Cricket Board while recognising the challenges facing Afghan women’s cricket, including the concerns of players living in exile,” he stated to the BBC recently.
Additionally, the ICC is examining several correspondence pertaining to women’s cricket in Afghanistan and determining how the ICC’s legal and constitutional framework might assist them. According to the BBC, he stated, “We are focused on positive communication and workable solutions that protect the interests of all Afghan cricket players.”
Previously, the ICC member England and Wales Cricket (ECB) requested action against the Afghan board.
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