Amid demands for justice in Afghan women’s sports, exiled Afghan Olympian Marzieh Hamidi has asked India to reevaluate support for Afghanistan cricket team. Hamidi, who fled Afghanistan in 2021 after the Taliban took power, advocates for the team without guaranteeing women’s participation normalizes the Taliban’s gender-based apartheid.
Hamidi, a taekwondo champion and Afghanistan’s flag bearer at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, now is living under police protection in France following a barrage of thousands of death threats for living by her principles. She argues that the ICC should uphold its rule that nations be given recognition only if they have both men’s and women’s teams and points to past boycotts of South African sports teams during the apartheid era.
Afghanistan’s cricket team maybe recently went over England in the ICC Champions Cup in Pakistan but its captain Hashmatullah Shahidi have each assistance his position of boundedness over this dispute. “We are sportspersons. Things that we can control on the field, we control, he said, official enough stepping away from political controversies. 
International cricket bodies remain divided. Cricket Australia had earlier axed a T20 series against Afghanistan on grounds of human rights concerns and over 160 British MPs had called for boycott. But ICC President Jay Shah however reiterated engagement with the Afghanistan Cricket Board, saying that the ICC would continue support Afghan women’s cricket.
Hamidi who is preparing for 2028 Olympic bright words, to India reminds – there must be justice in Afghanistan cricket, India must ensure that its contribution to the sport be in line justice and not legitimize the women rights violating regime.
