Imagine living in a society where playing any form of sport is as much a reality as hoping for a carnivore to only feed on grass. Highly unlikely, isn’t it?
Yes, since 2021, the year when the Taliban took over, Afghanistan has witnessed constant oppression of women in society where participation in any sort of public and social life has become a taboo beyond any measure of arrest.
The situation is so dire in this land that women are deprived of basics such as education, work and even stepping out of the house alone, let alone play any form of sport where as the men can continue with every ritual that makes living viable.
Perhaps, the only thing women are allowed in this ill-fated environment is to breathe!
Ask the likes of Afghan women cricketers in Firooza Amiri and Benafsha Hashimi, who in a recent interview spoke their hearts out from Australia and they will whole heartedly agree!
This was only possible courtesy the noble intentions of the Australian women’s stalwart Mel Jones who arranged for the Afghan cricketers to take exile in Australia as the rule of the Taliban beckoned back in 2021.
The legend has given these women a renewed vigour of hope as they are plying their trade amongst the club cricket circuit in the land down under and are also scheduled to play a matchagainst a Cricket Without Borders side at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on January 30 this year.
A big opportunity to show their potential, if one were to ask.
While their male counterparts have ascended to heights unparalleled reaching the semifinals of the recent T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean islands, its high time world cricket starts rallying support for the women of the same land, isn’t it?
The ICC clearly mandates that for any full member, their men and women sides should ply their trade on the global stage. Then why not make this true even for Afghanistan?
There have been conversations around banning the men’s team owing to the unfortunate state of women in the country and hence lack of representation in sport, but perhaps that’s not a feasible solution.
The men’s team is most certainly not to be blamed for policies of their government albeit they should be used as a voice of change, urging the world to take notice and act against this oppression.
Imagine if the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and others can speak in unison urging world cricket and perhaps the ICC to put pressure on the powers at play to urge them to give equal rights to women including representation in sport.
If this were to happen one would undoubtedly see the broader narrative involving political, social, and the cultural fabricwith respect to the rights of the women see change with cricket playing the role of a crucial catalyst.
Only then will these remarkable women be able to breathe in a world of limitless possibilities, where freedom and opportunity flow as freely as their talents.
They’ll finally have the chance to live lives equal to their male counterparts—a shift that’s not just important, but absolutely transformative.
This is a chance for true change, and it’s something that simply can’t be overlooked!