Postponed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 Asian Games took place from late September to early October 2023 in Hangzhou, China and it excluded the Afghanistan women cricket squad. Recognized as the second largest global athletic competition behind only the Olympics, these games feed into the Olympiads. Occurring every four years like the Olympics, the Asian Games give 45 participating Asian nations head starts in preparing for the Global Games.
This year’s Asian Games included the first athletes sent by Afghanistan under Taliban rule. The segregationist government sent 130 men (and men only) to participate in 17 different athletic and sports competitions. The Taliban-appointed spokesperson for Afghanistan, Atel Mashwani, made it abundantly clear that women would not be participating on behalf of the Afghanistan government. However, there is an exciting twist to this otherwise despicable tale.
A Rebel Stands Firmly with Afghanistan Women Athletes
Before the terrorist regime gained control of Afghanistan, a well-respected man by the name of Hafizullah Wali Rahimi oversaw the National Olympic Committee for the war-torn nation. Rahimi still has a rather large amount of pull in the International Olympic Committee. And, because of that pull, he was able to officially send an additional 17 players to the Asian Games with all 17 participating under the Afghanistan national flag. Among these athletes were 15 women, including a volleyball team that earned a lot of press and respect. How did they pull it off?
It’s genius. Atel Mashwani and the Taliban sent their 130 men under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan banner. Then, without the permission or approval of the Taliban government, Hafizullah Wali Rahimi created the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. With his connections at the IOC still strong, Rahimi was even able to have his 15 female athletes walk alongside the Taliban’s 130 men all led by a Chinese woman carrying the Afghanistan national flag. It was one of the biggest flexes anyone might ever witness.
Fighting an Uphill Battle Against Obscurity
Of the total athletes sent by combined Afghanistan, only 83 would participate in games. Twelve men would play (and not place) in rugby. Twenty-four men and women would play volleyball. And, although it would have been nice to see those twelve female volleyballers place, they finished with a 0-4 record. But take nothing away from them. Displaced, they practice in hiding and fear violent retaliation just for participating in athletic competitions. The men’s team – who can practice regularly and openly – also finished 0-4.
Afghanistan’s men would receive four bronze medals, all in karate and wrestling. The women, understandably, did not place. Then there was the men’s cricket squad, of course. How could we forget? They would reach the finals in a head-to-head match against the always dominant India squad. If Afghanistan won, the Taliban would surely parade around their greatness and go on social media tirades about how Australia is mean. But it wouldn’t be so.
No Redemption Story for the Men’s Cricket Squad
A washout would prevent India from even stepping into the crease. Rain would not allow the squad that included India’s B-team from most likely destroying Afghanistan’s meager 112 runs. Points and seeding would award India the gold medal without even having to participate in the match. And I for one, find that hilarious. Afghanistan lost the gold medal, and the other team didn’t even have to play to beat them.
To add insult to injury, when Afghanistan finally got to face Australia in the 2023 World Cup after the latter refused to play the former until the Taliban permitted women to participate in cricket, things didn’t go according to plan. An injured Glenn Maxwell playing without the ability to use his legs well would score a double-century of 201 runs not out to defeat Afghanistan in humiliating fashion. Karma is a bitch, as they say. And that leads us to an exciting development.
Never Giving Up
Cricket returns to the Olympics in 2028 for the first time since 1900. Taking place in Los Angeles, California, six teams will battle in a T20 tournament for the gold, silver, and bronze. It would be very interesting if the IOC, the ICC, the USA, and Hafizullah Wali Rahimi worked together to ensure that one of those six women’s squads included the courageous women of Afghanistan. What a story that would make for the City of Hopes and Dreams.
In the two years since the Taliban takeover, the 25 women selected by the former government of Afghanistan have slowly returned to public life. Most of them are living happy and safe in Australia. Three have moved to Canada including Roya Samim, Najiba Samim, and sister Lima Samim. Team manager Tuba Sanger also has found asylum in Canada. They continue to participate in cricket in the Northern nation.
Picking Up the Pieces Around the World
Australia welcomed the remaining role models with open arms. They still practice and hope to represent their country on the global stage one day. What could be a better stage than the 2028 Olympic Games? It would be an honor for us Americans if their coaches Hajra Sarwar, Farahnaz Tazhib, and founder Diana Barakzai reconnected with them and brought them here to California to participate in the 2028 Global Games. Imagine the statement cricket would make on the world then.
Still practicing down under, many Afghanistan female players have gone public through magazine and newspaper interviews and photographs and videos on social media. A few names were known in the early days of the team’s creation. Names like Furiiza Afghan, Ogai Wardek, Madina Zazai, Naheeda Sapand, and Maryam Nyazi are in old YouTube stories from 2012 when the girls were still teenagers.
These Are the Afghanistan Women
But now adults, these brave athletes are emboldened. Names like Sheba Akhari, Nabila Hameed, Firooza Amiri, and Nazifa Amiri have become outspoken crickets of both the Taliban and the ICC. And their names now belong alongside their male counterparts like overpaid and over-rated bowler globetrotter Rashid Khan. Heroes like Friba Hotak, Bibi Khadija, Shabnam Alisan, Nilab Stanikzai, and Shafiqa Khan deserve to be heard and deserve to play cricket for their home country, regardless of its misogynistic regime.
That isn’t the full list of the remarkable women’s Afghanistan team and coaches but it’s one hell of a start. As time marches on and the calendar moves toward 2028, we will only become strengthened by the power of these brave athletes. As long as trailblazers like the Afghanistan women’s volleyball team stand up fearlessly for what’s right, the world will change. Monsters will vanish. Good will prevail. And that good needs to happen in Los Angeles, California at the LA28 Olympic Games.
