Afganistan cricket team

[Mushroomwithaview]

The cricket world cup is currently being held in India.
The Afghanistan team have done surprisingly well, and it's being presented as a feel-good story. "Unlikely heroes"

Is it a feel-good story? Are they athletes who are doing something good, and they have no power personally against the Taliban government?

Or are they men who are allowed to play their sport in a country where women are not allowed sport, education, medical care or autonomy over their own body? Are they complicit in the system?

I honestly don't know. I'm just feeling some kind of a way about "hooray for mens' sport" while women are forbidden from going to the fucking park.

Women are not allowed to see a male doctor. They are also not allowed to get an education and so there will be no more female doctors. The Taliban have made healthcare illegal for women and girls. But hey. Cricket!

It's the men's championships

And the underdog did surprisingly well, and everyone loves a good underdog story.

So I don't really begrudge the team that's done that their moment in the sun.

Bu women's sport comes second. Did we get any main stream reporting of the women's championships?

(And at risk of provoking frothing royalists, we even have a President of the FA who didn't attend when an England team reached the final for the first time in nearly 60 years, so I'm not sure if we have any high ground to claim)

Then you layer on to that the nature of life under the Taliban, and yes you get a completely different picture

Women's sport doesn't come second in Afghanistan. It doesn't come at all. Afghanistani women are not allowed to throw a ball around, let alone have a cricket team.

I realise it's the men's championships. I'm not asking why we're celebrating the men rather than the women. I'm asking why we're all enjoying a feel-good story about the plucky underdogs from a country whose immeasurably cruel treatment of women and girls is a crime against humanity.

What if we said they couldn't play? There were international sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Why not against Afghanistan now?

I agree with you 100%. I think it’s bullshit they are allowed to compete when women are treated liked dogs in A. At the very least the sporting bodies could say all teams must field both a men’s and some s team to enter

I also do not understand why there was such a big world resistance to apartheid in SA and yet here we are decades later with women treated far worse in Afghanistan and the world stands by. The race apartheid involved segregations for blacks but did not ban their education or sport or independent movement. This sex apartheid is so much worse on many levels. The women are simply not even free people, and human freedom is something that ought to be standard in this modern world. It’s all abhorrent and I am so angry and frustrated for womenkind, and a lack of any stance against it.

Technically under ICC rules for the men to compete in international tournaments the federation should have a women's team. But Afghanistan is currently an exception. I don't think the ICC should not allow the men to play, but they've been pretty useless doing anything to help the women (some of whom are in Australia).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/65263457.amp

Also I think some individual players and federations probably feel really strongly about this - Australia cancelled a bilateral series against Afghanistan earlier this year I think for this reason. But the governing body of cricket is rubbish - in this way, and in many many other ways. They are often heavily criticized for not broadening cricket, developing teams outside the bigger nations, so they will just be thrilled that Afghanistan have actually played well at this tournament.

Or are they men who are allowed to play their sport in a country where women are not allowed sport, education, medical care or autonomy over their own body? Are they complicit in the system?

They don't really play in Afghanistan though. They've been a basically itinerant team, and have moved their base between different countries. That's one of the reasons they're an underdog compared to the other teams.