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Six Afghan athletes—including three women—head to Paris this year. But the Taliban has refused to acknowledge the female Afghan athletes playing for their home country.
In September 2021—less than a month after the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan—the Taliban banned women and girls from participating in sports. (Already, the Taliban had banned girls from classrooms past elementary school and from public places like parks and gyms.) For some women and girls, athletics was their last avenue to connect with others and express themselves. Taliban officials threatened any woman or girl—and her family—who continued sports, even in their own homes.
The Taliban said it banned women from sports because it might lead to the “inappropriate and immoral exposure of women’s bodies.” It’s clear this decision was not based on morality, but rather on control and oppression.
The international community criticized the Taliban’s policy. U.N. experts argued that it was a step closer to gender apartheid and that organizations should ban the country from participating in international athletic competitions. The U.N. was right: The ban on women participating in sports was only the first step in the Taliban’s gender apartheid regime.
Nearly three years later, the prohibition of sports has become the status quo for women in Afghanistan, with almost no rebuke from the international community.
With the 2024 Paris Olympics approaching, the question of Afghanistan’s participation in international athletic competitions is imperative. The International Olympic Committee collaborated with Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee to bring six Afghan athletes to Paris this year, most of whom are exiled outside the country.
Three women and three men will represent Afghanistan, yet the Taliban has refused to acknowledge the female Afghan athletes playing for their home country. Atal Mashwani, a spokesperson from the Taliban’s National Olympic Committee, said, “Only three athletes are representing Afghanistan.” All three women and two of the male Olympians are currently living outside of Afghanistan.
One Afghan Olympian, Kimia Yousofi, has been vocal about the human rights abuses committed by the Taliban, especially against women and girls. Yousofi escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban took control in 2021, fleeing to Australia to continue her dreams of sprinting at the Olympics. She competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and will compete for the third time in Paris. Yousofi said that she will be representing the “stolen dreams and aspirations” of Afghan women still under the Taliban’s gender apartheid.
Along with Kimia, the sisters Yuldoz and Fariba Hashimi will be competing as Afghanistan’s first-ever representatives for cycling in the Olympics. The two first started cycling in 2017 when they secretly competed in a cycling race just after learning how to ride a bike. They continued to compete, facing harassment and threats, but eventually gained the attention of the Afghan National Cycling team. When the Taliban took power in August 2021, the sisters fled the country to continue cycling in Italy, having to leave their family behind.
In 2022, Yuldoz and Fariba Hashimi competed in the Women’s Road Championship of Afghanistan in Switzerland due to the Taliban’s ban on female sports competitions. The younger sister, Fariba, won the race, with Yuldoz placing second. After receiving external scholarships to participate in the Olympics, they will race against each other in the women’s road cycling competition.
The international community must take note of the cruelty of the Taliban as they ban girls from attaining their human rights, such as education and even playing freely. The gender apartheid in Afghanistan should be formally addressed so that dozens of Afghan women can compete in the 2028 Olympics.
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