Human Rights Watch urges ICC to suspend Afghanistan cricket

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to suspend Afghanistan’s membership in response to the assault on women’s rights.

HRW made the request to ICC via an email on February 3 and made it public on March 7.

“We are writing at this time to urge the International Cricket Council (ICC) to suspend Taliban-run Afghanistan from ICC membership, and from participating in international cricket, until women and girls can once again participate in education and sport in the country,” the email addressing ICC Chief Jay Shah said.

The email went on to say that the ICC’s anti-discrimination policy for international cricket states that it is committed to ensuring that wherever cricket is played, it can be enjoyed by all participants regardless of their respective backgrounds.

It pointed out that the policy also strives to ensure all participants can enjoy sport without being subjected to intimidating conduct on the basis of – among other factors – sex, gender, marital status and/or maternity status.

The email also argued that while payments to Afghanistan’s Women’s team were suspended in 2021, the country’s men’s team continues to receive financial and logistical support, apparently in contravention of the ICC’s own anti-discrimination rules.

“By not allowing women and girls to play cricket, and not allowing a national team for women and girls to compete internationally, the Afghanistan Cricket Board is failing to abide by this Anti-Discrimination Policy,” Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch asked for a timely response from the ICC to a number of questions, including what steps the governing body is taking towards developing a human rights policy, why it hasn’t suspended the ACB from playing international cricket until women and girls have access to education and sport and, would it be prepared to recognise the Afghanistan women’s national team in exile, allowing it to train, compete and receive ICC financial support.

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“The International Cricket Council should follow in the steps of other sport governing bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, by calling on the Taliban to include Afghan women and girls in sport, and committing to a human rights frame work,” the email concluded.

Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, women have been forced to adhere to an increasingly restrictive range of laws barring them from most areas of public life, including sport. Shortly before that, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) had agreed to contract 25 women’s players, most of whom now live in exile in Australia.

In July last year, former members of the Afghanistan women’s national team, no longer recognised as such by the country’s Taliban rulers, wrote to the ICC asking to be recognised as a refugee team.

England and Australia have opted not to play Afghanistan in bilateral games, while agreeing to face them at ICC events, with ECB chief executive Richard Gould calling for a “co-ordinated, ICC-led, response” rather than unilateral action from individual countries.